This free course, Judicial decision making, explains how judges decide cases. You will learn how judges make sense of evidence, and how they decide on fair outcomes in legal disputes. The course shows how the law constrains and influences judges, and what happens when the law is uncertain or contested. The course uses videos, practical examples, and interactive activities to explain and demonstrate each key idea.This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course W112 Civil justice and tort law.
Overview
Syllabus
- 1 Legal reasoning
- 2 Fact-finding
- 2.1 Everyday fact-finding
- 2.2 Legal fact-finding
- 2.3 Material facts
- 3 Decision making
- 4 Reasons
- 5 Bias in judicial decision-making
- 5.1 Empirical evidence
- 5.2 Feminist Legal Judgments Project
- 6 Precedent and interpretation
- 7 Sliding Doors and stare decisis
- 7.1 The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
- 8 Precedent for prediction and persuasion
- 8.1 Ratio decidendi and obiter dicta
- 8.2 The judicial hierarchy
- 8.3 Analogy in law
- 9 Certainty and uncertainty
- 10 Do judges make law?
- 10.1 Judges as legislators
- 11 Consolidation quiz – Part 1
- 12 Consolidation quiz – Part 2
