Writing judgments is an art, not a science, said Lord Hope. Moreover, judges spend much of their judicial lives looking at other people's judgments - it is the lifeblood of their existence.
Starting with whether a written judgment is necessary, Lord Hope looked at the various schools of thought and 'tricks of the trade' involved in producing a finished judgment.
"The result of our labours may be forgotten as soon as it has been issued. Even if it makes the law reports, the pages on which it appears may lie unopened for year after year and perhaps for ever. But I see no reason why we should be disturbed by this. Writing a judicial opinion is not, after all, an exercise in self advertisement.
“… How fortunate we are however that, in our legal tradition, the character of our judges can live on through their opinions. Each volume of the law reports contains, in this way, a portrait of each of the judges whose work is reproduced in them. This is how the common law is made. It is our gift to posterity.”
