RATIO DECIDENDI AND THE HOUSE OF LORDS
| Date | 01 March 1957 |
| Author | J. L. Montrose |
| Published date | 01 March 1957 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2230.1957.tb00431.x |
RATIO DECIDENDI AND
THE
HOUSE
OF
LORDS
THE
Latinity of the phrase
ratio decidendi
has not preserved
it
from the ambiguity of English words: indeed
it
may be responsible
for some of the ambiguity since as a mere matter of translation
it
may be rendered equally by the phrases
cc
reason for deciding
”
and
ccreason of decision.” Judges and scholars alike use the phrase
on
some occasions for
any
reason which influences the ultimate
decision,l whether
it
be a finding of fact,
or
a determination of law,
or
an opinion about social circumstance
or
public policy, and
on
some occasions for a rule of law, whether influencing the court
or
not, for which
it
is thought the case can be used as authority.
While such flexibility is doubtless not wholly disadvantageous, it
is
often productive of confusion. The confusion surrounding the use
of
ratio decidendi
is only slightly lessened by the convention under
which
it
is more often used to refer solely to some
rule
of
law
which
is
connected in some way
or
another with the decision. This
convention
is
properly recognised by Glanville Williams in his
instruction to the student beginning to learn the law when he
‘c
translates
”
ratio decidendi
as
cc
the rule of law upon which the
decision is founded.” But the translation is ambiguous, for while
it
might appear to mean the rule of law upon which the judge
founded his decision,”
it
is clear that Glanville Williams accepts
the terminology adopted and the doctrine expounded by Goodhart
in
Determining the Ratio Decidendi
of
a
Case,s
whereby the
ratio
decidendi
of a case is not the rule
of
law propounded by the judge
as the basis of his decision. Paton asserts, in accordance with the
language of many jurists but not with that of the judges, that
ratio decidendi
means the rule of law for which a case is binding.
There is
no
ambiguity in his exposition; he says that
(‘
The classical
view was that the
ratio
was the principle of law which the judge
considered necessary to the decision.” This sentence does not
embody an explanation of the
meaning
of the word
ratio,
but a
criterion
of
the already defined
thing.
It
is this
cc
classical
”
view
which Goodhart controverted.
I
have argued that it is better to
use the phrase
ratio decidendi
to mean exclusively the principle of
law propounded by the judge as the basis of his decision, a usage
1
A
recent example
of
ratio decidendi
being used
to
denote something other
$putts there
He pro-
than
a
rille
of
law is
to
be foyd in
(1955)
71
L.Q.R.
at p.
25.
asks,
in reference
to
a case,
ceeds to consider as a possible
ratio decidcndi
a particular finding
of
fact.
What then is the
ratio decidendi?
2
Learning the Law
(3rd
ed.)
1950,
p.
57.
J
Essays
in
Jurisprudence and the Common Law,
p.
1.
4
Jurisprudence
(1st ed.),
p.
159.
124
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