What makes an Important Case? A Study of the Creation, Transmission and Validation of Legal Knowledge
Lead Research Organisation:
Queen's University Belfast
Department Name: Sch of Law
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| J Morison (Principal Investigator) | |
| G Anthony (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Morison J
(2019)
Re-engineering justice? Robot judges, computerised courts and (semi) automated legal decision-making
in Legal Studies
Morison J
(2012)
What Makes An Important Case? An Agenda for Research
in Legal Information Management
| Description | The research found that for those in legal practice there is an exponentially expanding reservoir of legal authority which must be sorted through and the "relevant" authority produced. It is vital for practitioners to know what amounts to an "important case" and will therefore "work" for their cause. Those providing legal advice require a degree of certainty that comes from there being a settled understanding of the legal position in any area. In court an advocate needs to be able to engage with the other side, and with the judge, and process his or her argument. In part it will come down to what the advocates believe will be seen as relevant to the judge but here too there is a rich and complex social process occurring. For the judge, who by and large can only consider only the authorities that are put to the court, there is the question of which authorities are relevant. This is by no means an automatic process where settled understandings are brought to bear. The judge does not simply consider "the facts" and select the "correct" authority to determine the issue in the same way as someone doing a jigsaw puzzle finds the piece that fits. Neither fact nor law exists in this reified sense. Both are created and conditioned from a complex social milieu. The creation of an "important case" is a central element of this complex process. Taking the specialist area of judicial review the project developed an idea of what it is that makes a particular decision of significance such that it will become widely cited and used within the legal community as an "important case". The research initially explored the way in which cases come to be reported and noted a wider sociological process at work in how decisions come to be noticed, written up and disseminated through both formal and informal networks. The role of new technology in the form of feeds, blogs and webpages does have some influence in how legal precedents are created and consumed but traditional channels remain central. Interviewing a range of practitioners who can be seen as operating within concentric circles of expertise, the researchers explored those factors which contribute to a case being recognised as of particular value. Those interviewees drawn from specialist textbook writers, leading counsel and specialist judges emphasized the significance of cases that opened up new areas of law or procedure, while this group and those less specialist counsel, solicitors and government lawyers, confirmed the value of precedents which consolidated the legal position in a methodical way. Decisions that had particular political or social significance were not by themselves seen as important to our interviewees. The research sought also to explain how legal knowledge is transmitted within the system and across various degrees of specialism. It tested a hypothesis that sees important cases as being created by an elite group of specialist judicial review practitioners and judges who are regularly involved in the Administrative Court and appellate courts in judicial review practice. The knowledge created there is then collected and passed onwards and outwards to practitioner and academic writers, and others, who make judgments about what is important. This information is then disseminated further to wider communities of practice where lawyers with a more general orientation actually use the cases in everyday practice and complete the loop. The researchers are presently completing a major article to be submitted to a leading law journal which will detail the findings of the research. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| Description | The production and dissemination of legal knowledge is increasingly being mediated by new technology which is augmenting traditional ways of reporting legal cases via paper and online resources. One element of this work has been to engage with a number of bloggers and authors of updating services, as well as the authors of law reports (Incorporated Council of Law Reporting) and the British and Irish Legal Information Institute. Our findings about what makes an important case have been of value to a number of such sources and assisted in the development of new approaches to online resources. The project also engaged closely with law librarians via the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians, and others to help inform developing ideas about the future of legal information. For example, in our own law school the approach to providing multiple copies of bound law reports has been transformed and education and training about legal research techniques has focused instead on ideas of "important cases" and how to access these. On the final completion of our main research output - the major, agenda changing article - we propose to develop further all these engagements and impacts through dialogue with appropriate stakeholders. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2012 |
| Sector | Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | 8th Annual Judicial Review Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This annual meeting brings together the leading practitioners in Judicial Review which is the specialist area of interest within the more general approach of the project. This engagement not only provided an opportunity to make contacts for further interviews and fieldwork as well as fine-tuning the project schedule and direction, but also provided an opportunity for some interchange about the interim findings and their direct value to the legal professions. Increased contacts to develop the research in an iterative way as well as an opportunity to engage with beneficiaries on the interim findings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Plenary Lecture LVI 2013 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Plenary Speaker at International Conference Law via the Internet LVI 2013 held in Jersey, UK from 26-27th September 2013 on theme of "The Impact of Online Publishing" See http://www.jerseylvi2013.org Some excellent contacts made for further research and some additional invitations and connections |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | The Citizen and the State in the Digital Age: Law and Legal Information |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Paper presented to international audience under the auspices of IACL (the International Association of Constitutional Law). A number of potential collaborations, particularly with researchers in Sweden, are presently being developed and bids for further funding are being prepared. This presentation was made at an international conference and there was considerable interest, particularly from developing countries, in the findings of the research on how legal information is processed and mediated in an online environment. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | What Makes an Important Case? An Agenda for Research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Plenary lecture to British and Irish Association of Law Librarians This talk provoked interest from a range of legal information professionals about how law is accessed and used. These ranged from University librarians to information specialists working in legal practice. I had a number of follow up conversations and carried out research interviews with subjects as a result. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |