Abstract
This chapter examines a judge’s role and function in responding to those unique, but not uncommon, cases which attract public attention to civil litigation normally considered to be of a “private” nature. It suggests that in such situations judges have an additional responsibility and opportunity to be responsive. The chapter surveys leading cases of responsive judging to draw out commonalities and lessons for the future. Three remarkable judges and their responsive decisions are discussed: Somerset’s Case (Somerset v Stewart) before Chief Justice Mansfield, Donoghue v Stevenson as considered by Lord Atkin, and the Agent Orange litigation dealt with by the American Judge Jack Weinstein. A theme is developed from these cases which may be stated as the judge’s overriding concern for doing justice in a way which will resonate with the public while at the same time respecting law and the legal system. Judges who navigate the nexus between law and justice while in the public eye use their legal skills, social knowledge, and human responsiveness to do justice to those who appear before them. Judges in an era of increasing openness of courts and pervasive social media may find valuable guidance in these iconic cases. By way of conclusion some thoughts are offered concerning responsive judging focusing on a judge’s responsibility to secure as substantively just a result as possible, within the limits of the law, which is not limited to providing the appearance of justice through procedural propriety.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Responsive judges can partly be distinguished as those who perceive in some cases before them wider ramifications for society than the narrow legal and factual issues put in dispute by the parties. They thus approach some cases as if they were “public law litigation” although not actually involving public law. See Chayes (1976) and Fiss (1979).
- 2.
- 3.
The description of the litigation in Donoghue v Stevenson which follows is largely drawn from Chapman (2010).
- 4.
- 5.
Harding (1964, 435) notes: “The primary impression that remains after reading a wide selection of his judgments is one of his profound and all-pervading common sense. It is not a spectacular quality, except when it is absent, but it would seem to be his most typical and valuable single virtue, a touchstone to warn him when legal jargon and analysis begin to impede a just determination.”
- 6.
- 7.
Biographical details and description of the professional life of Judge Weinstein are drawn from Morris (2011).
- 8.
- 9.
But see the refusal of the United State Supreme Court to hear a case it deemed moot after offer of full settlement: Genesis Healthcare Corp. v Symczyk (2013).
References
Applegarth PDT (2015) Lord Atkin: principle and progress. Supreme Court of Queensland Library. http://media.sclqld.org.au/documents/lectures-and-exhibitions/2015/Justice-Applegarth-paper-final.pdf. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
Atkin J (1932) Law as an educational subject. J Soc Public Teachers Law 1932:27–31
Bingham TH (2009) The case of Liversidge v. Anderson: the rule of law amid the clash of arms. Int Lawyer 43:33–38
Bock v. Hansen (2014) 225 Cal. App. 4th 215 (Cal. App. 1st Dist. 2014). Justia. http://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/2014/a136567.html. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
Cammett A (2014) Deadbeat dads & welfare queens: How metaphor shapes poverty law. Boston Coll J Law Soc Justice 34:233–266
Carney G (2005) Lord Atkin—his Queensland origins and legacy. Supreme Court of Queensland Library. http://media.sclqld.org.au/documents/lectures-and-exhibitions/2015/gerard-carney-lord-atkin.pdf. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
Carrington PD, Apanovitch DP (1997) The constitutional limits of judicial rulemaking: the illegitimacy of mass-tort settlements negotiated under Federal Rule 23. Ariz Law Rev 39:461–495. ResearchGate. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/37810295. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
Castle R (2003) Lord Atkin and the neighbour test: origins of the principles of negligence in Donoghue v Stevenson. Ecclesiastical Law J 7:210–214
Chamberlain E (2010) Lord Atkin’s opinion in Donoghue v Stevenson: perspectives from biblical hermeneutics. Law Humanit 4(1):91–114
Chan AB (2011) Who then—in law—is my neighbour?: Lord Atkin’s ‘neighbour principle’ as an aid for the principled delineation of the boundaries of negligent liability. Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/27336/6/Chan_Adrian_B_20113_LLM_thesis.pdf. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
Chapman M (2010) The snail and the ginger beer. Wildy, Simmonds & Hill, London
Chayes A (1976) The role of the judge in public law litigation. Harvard Law Rev 89:1281–1316
Derrida J (1990) Force of law: the ‘mystical foundation of authority’. Cardozo Law Rev 11:920–1045
Donoghue v Stevenson (1932) [1932] All ER Rep 1; [1932] AC 562. Scottish Council of Law Reporting. http://www.scottishlawreports.org.uk/resources/dvs/donoghue-v-stevenson-report.html. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
Donoghue v Stevenson: Digital Resources (2017) Scottish Council of Law Reporting. http://www.scottishlawreports.org.uk/resources/dvs/donoghue-v-stevenson.html. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
Dred Scott v Sandford (1856) 60 U.S. 393. Justia. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/60/393/. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
Fiddes E (1934) Lord Mansfield and the Sommersett case. Law Q Rev 50:499–511
Fisher RA (1943) Granville Sharp and Lord Mansfield. J Negro Hist 28(4):381–389
Fiss OM (1979) Foreword: the forms of justice. Harvard Law Rev 93:1–58
Fiss OM (1984) Against settlement. Yale Law J 93:1073–1090. Yale Law School. http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/1215/. Accessed 13 Sept 2017
Fortson R (2004) Correcting the harms of slavery: collective liability, the limited prospects of success for a class action suit for slavery reparations, and the reconceptualization of white racial identity. Berkeley J Afr-Am Law Policy 6(1):71–127
Friedlander L (1995) Costs and the public interest litigant. McGill Law J 40:55–102
Gear Rich C (2016) Reclaiming the welfare queen: feminist and critical race theory alternatives to existing anti-poverty discourse. South Calif Interdisc Law J 25:257–288
Genesis Healthcare Corp. v Symczyk (2013) 656 F. 3d 189, reversed. Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/11-1059. Accessed 13 Sept 2017
Gregson v Gilbert (1783) 99 ER 629. CommonLII. http://www.commonlii.org/int/cases/EngR/1783/85.pdf. Accessed 5 Sept 2017
Grimshaw v Ford Motor Company (1981) 119 Cal.App.3d 757. Justia. http://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/3d/119/757.html. Accessed 13 Sept 2017
Harding RW (1964) Lord Atkin’s judicial attitudes and their illustration in commercial law and contract. Mod Law Rev 27(4):434–446
Hulsebosch DJ (2006) Nothing but liberty: Somerset’s Case and the British Empire. Law Hist Rev 24:647–657
Hutchinson AC (2012) Laughing at the Gods: great judges and how they made the common law. Cambridge University Press, New York
In re African-American Slave Descendants Litigation (2005) 2005 WL 1561509. Aetna. http://www.aetna.com/data/judges_order.pdf. Accessed 6 Sept 2017
In re African-American Slave Descendants Litigation (2006) 471 F.3d 754, 759–60, 762 (7th Cir. 2006). United States Courts. http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2006/D12-13/C:05-3265:J:_:aut:T:op:N:0:S:0. Accessed 6 September 2017
In re Agent Orange Product Liability Litigation (1984a) 580 F. Supp. 690 (E.D.N.Y. 1984). Justia. http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/580/690/1450028/. Accessed 2 Oct 2017
In re Agent Orange Product Liability Litigation (1984b) 597 F. Supp. 740 (E.D.N.Y. 1984). Justia. http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/597/740/1437287/. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
Kleefeld JC (2013) The Donoghue diaries: Lord Atkin’s research notes in Donoghue v Stevenson. Juridical Rev 3:375–450. SSRN. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2470647. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
Knight v Wedderburn (1778) [1778] Hailes 776. BAILII. http://www.bailii.org/scot/cases/ScotCS/1778/Hailes020776-0472.html. Accessed 2 Oct 2017
Krikler J (2007) The Zong and the Lord Chief Justice. Hist Workshop J 64:29–47
Lahav AD (2015) Participation and procedure. DePaul Law Rev 64:513–536
Lewis G (1999) Lord Atkin. Bloomsbury, London
Levin J (2013) The welfare queen. Slate. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2013/12/linda_taylor_welfare_queen_ronald_reagan_made_her_a_notorious_american_villain.html. Accessed 7 Sept 2017
Liversidge v Anderson (1941) [1942] AC 206. BAILII. http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/1941/1.pdf. Accessed 5 Sept 2017
Lobban M (2007) Slavery, insurance and the law. J Leg Hist 28:319–328
Luban D (1995) Settlements and the erosion of the public realm. Georgetown Law J 83:2619–2662
Luck G (2015) The story behind Lord Atkin of snail. Quadrant Online. https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2015/01-02/story-behind-lord-atkin-snail-2/. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
Menkel-Meadow C (1995) Whose dispute is it anyway?: a philosophical and democratic defense of settlement (in some cases). Georgetown Law J 83:2663–2696
Morris JB (2011) Leadership on the federal bench: the craft and activism of Jack Weinstein. Oxford University Press, New York
Morris JB (2015) Jack B. Weinstein: judicial entrepreneur. Univ Miami Law Rev 69:393–428
Mullenix LS (2015) Competing values: preserving litigant autonomy in an age of collective redress. DePaul Law Rev 64:601–639
Oldham J (1988) New light on Mansfield and slavery. J Brit Stud 27(1):45–68
Oldham J (1992) The Mansfield manuscripts and the growth of English law in the eighteenth century, vol 1. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill
Oldham J (2004) English common law in the age of Mansfield. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill
Oldham J (2007) Insurance litigation involving the Zong and other British slave ships, 1780–1807. J Leg Hist 28(3):299–318
Paley R (2006) Imperial politics and English law: the many contexts of Somerset. Law Hist Rev 24:659–664
Parker West L (2016) Soccer moms, welfare queens, waitress moms, and super moms: Myths of motherhood in state media coverage of child care during the ‘welfare reforms’ of the 1990s. South Calif Interdisc Law J 25:313–346
Quéma A (2016) M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!: metaphors, laws, and fugues of justice. J Law Soc 43(1):85–104
Rex ex rel. Lewis v Stapylton (1771) Unreported. Described in Prince Hoare ed. 1820. Memoirs of Granville Sharp. Henry Colburn and Co., London
Rupprecht A (2007a) ‘A very uncommon case’: representations of the Zong and the British campaign to abolish the slave trade. J Leg Hist 28:329–346
Rupprecht A (2007b) Excessive memories: slavery, insurance and resistance. Hist Workshop J 64:6–28
Schuck PH (1987) Agent orange on trial: mass toxic disasters in the courts, Enlarged edn. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Sills P (2014) Toxic war: the story of agent orange. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville
Smith v Brown and Cooper (1701) 91 ER 566. CommonLII. http://www.commonlii.org/uk/cases/EngR/1795/3194.pdf. Accessed 2 Oct 2017
Smith v Gould (1705) 91 ER 567. CommonLII. http://www.commonlii.org/uk/cases/EngR/1795/3194.pdf. Accessed 2 Oct 2017
Somerset v Stewart (1772) 98 ER 499. CommonLII. http://www.commonlii.org/int/cases/EngR/1772/57.pdf. Accessed 5 Sept 2017
The Paisley Snail: Donoghue v Stevenson (2017) Justice Education Society of British Columbia. http://www.justiceeducation.ca/resources/paisley-snail. Accessed 8 Sept 2017
United States v Concepcion (1992) 795 F. Supp. 1262 (E.D.N.Y. 1992). Justia. http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/795/1262/2596395/. Accessed 5 Sept 2017
Van Cleve G (2006a) Somerset’s Case and its antecedents in imperial perspective. Law Hist Rev 24:601–645
Van Cleve G (2006b) Mansfield’s decision: toward human freedom. Law Hist Rev 24:665–671
Webb DA (2014) The Somerset effect: parsing Lord Mansfield’s words on slavery in nineteenth century America. Law Hist Rev 32(3):455–490
Webster J (2007) The Zong in the context of the eighteenth-century slave trade. J Leg Hist 28:285–298
Weinstein JB (1995) Individual justice in mass tort litigation: the effect of class actions, consolidations, and other multi-party devices. Northwestern University Press, Evanston
Weinstein JB (2008) The role of judges in a government of, by, and for the people: Notes for the fifty-eighth Cardozo lecture. Cardozo Law Rev 30:1–244
Wiecek WM (1974) Somerset: Lord Mansfield and the legitimacy of slavery in the Anglo-American world. Univ Chicago Law Rev 42(1):86–146
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Zariski, A. (2018). Mansfield, Atkin, Weinstein: Three Responsive Judges at the Nexus of Law, Politics, and Economy. In: Sourdin, T., Zariski, A. (eds) The Responsive Judge. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 67. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1023-2_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1023-2_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-1022-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-1023-2
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)