HOW TO BE A GOOD JUDGE

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 154, 27 March 1937, Page VI (Supplement)

HOW TO BE A GOOD JUDGE

Lord Hewart Gives The Recipe

Bray silence for Dord Hewart. Lord Chief Justice of England, speaking on the subject of judges and their duties. The life of a judge, no doubt, appears easy to those who have escaped it. Yet a little reflection seems to show that, a goo-d many things arc expected 01. him.

At one and the same time be must be a. miracle of experience, knowledge, and sympathy, but he must also be capable, at decent intervals. of asking such questions as ‘‘What is a Test match? and "Who is Grade Fields?"

flow can a man reconcile these and other conflicting demands?

The secret consists, I fancy, in two things—nothing could produce such wonderful results except first a prolonged and severe training at the Bar. and secondly a full-bottomed wig. The stimulative advantages of that headdress were, as you recollect, recognised by the wise mon of old when they set. it upon the head of the Sphinx. There an- three formulas or incantations which at the earliest possible moment he. must accustom himself to utter frequently, vigorously, and with complacency. One is: “lu wy opinion this matter

falls within a very narrow compass.” The second is: "This argument seemed likely at one time to raise an important and difficult question on widen, 11; it ’had arisen. I should, of course, have been happy to express my opinion, but as it -does not; arise I need not refer to it.” And the third is: “'Speaking for myself, I am bound to confess”—this, that, or the other thing—though why a judge should confess anything I have never been able to understand. On a certain occasion the judges were about to present a loyal address, and the draft which one of them proposed began with the words, “Conscious as we are of our imperfections . . .” There were those who thought that the phrase seemed to indicate an unbecoming humility, whereupon an amendment was suggested. “Conscious as we are of one another's imperfections . . .” There may still be point in that text in “Apocrypha,” “Woe unto them that say. 'Here is a judgment; therefore let ns reverse if.’ For verily they themselves shall be reversed.”

For myself, however. I prefer to think rather of the bewildering perfection of my eminent colleagues.