[Download] "Justice Callinan's Judgments in Private Law: Story Telling, Legal Coherence and Corrective Justice (Australia)" by University of Queensland Law Journal # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Justice Callinan's Judgments in Private Law: Story Telling, Legal Coherence and Corrective Justice (Australia)
- Author : University of Queensland Law Journal
- Release Date : January 01, 2008
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 296 KB
Description
I INTRODUCTION Justice Ian Callinan brought important qualities to the judgments he delivered in his near-decade on the High Court bench. They included a strong desire to make judging accessible and intelligible to those who have the misfortune to be caught up in litigation; a conviction that the correct application of the law depends on the quality of fact-finding; fidelity to precedent; and a commitment to achieving practical justice. This article will examine the importance he attached to building legal analysis on solid foundations of fact-finding. But its principal aim is to argue that in his judgments on private law Ian Callinan showed a strong preference for achieving corrective justice, and a corresponding reluctance to take into account arguments based on considerations of distributive justice. The partiality for corrective justice is not surprising. It is based on clearly held and expressed views on the proper limits of the appellate judicial role. It is acceptable for judges to improve the coherence of the law, so that doctrines more fully achieve their recognised remedial aims. It is in this sense that 'the common law ... works itself pure by rules drawn from the fountain of justice.' (1) But the courtroom is not the place to evaluate the merits of distributive arguments, and attempts to do so are almost always partial and incomplete.