Judicial Precedent, Law Reporting And The Need For Regulation

Lord Edmund –Davis in his book "Judicial Activism"1975, wrote as follows "Whatever a judge does, he will most surely have his critics .If, in an effort to do justice, he appears to make new law, there will be cries that he is overweening and that he has rendered uncertain what had long been regarded as established legal principles .On the other hand ,if he sticks to the old legal  rules ,an equally vocal body will charge him with being reactionary, a slave to precedent, and of failing to the mould the law to changing social needs. He cannot win ,and, if he is wise ,he will not worry ,even though at times he ruefully reflect that those who should know better seem to have little appreciation of the difficulties of his vocation. He will just direct himself to the  task of doing justice in each case as it comes along. No task could be nobler."