The art and craft of judgment-writing : a primer for common law judges / Max Barrett.

Woking, Surrey : Globe Law and Business, 2025.

2nd edition

202422

Judicial process.

Judicial opinions.

Legal composition.

Part 1: General

1. On judgments

2. Judgments: purpose and audience

3. Judgment length

4. Judgment style

5. Judgment structure

6. Dissenting and concurring judgments

7. Children, families, and immigrants

8. Ex tempore judgments

9. The judgment as the art of truth

Part 2: Some specific aspects of judgment writing

10. Writing a judgment using AI

11. The ethics of using AI

12. AI and legal research

13. Visual aids

14. Storytelling

15. Structured writing

16. Using precedents

17. Sensitive information

18. Writing long judgments

19. Judgment summaries

20. Editing

21. Footnotes

22. Collaborative judgment writing

23. Media sensitivity

24. Gender-inclusive language

25. The future of judgment writing

Part 3: Some great judges and their writing

26. Three great women judges

27. Three great American judges

28. Three great British judges

29. Some great judges from the wider world

Part 4: Some lessons from great writers

30. Barbauld

31. Besant

32. Conrad

33. Crawford

34. De Maupassant

35. De Quincey

36. Forster

37. Hardy

38. The Hawthornes

39. Hazlitt

40. Howells

41. James

42. Johnson

43. Lawrence

44. Lewes

45. Lewis

46. Matthews

47. Maugham

48. Orwell

49. Pater

50. Poe

51. Raleigh

52. Saintsbury

53. Schopenhauer

54. Spencer

55. Stevenson

56. Thompson

57. Trollope

58. Twain

59. Wharton

60. Woolf

Part 5: A judgment writing code

61. A proposed code on judgment writing

Appendix A: A handbook on judgment writing.

In this second edition of The Art and Craft of Judgment Writing, Max Barrett, an experienced and practising judge working in Ireland, will not only enhance your judgment writing skills but elevate them to a new level of clarity, precision and style. With the first edition already used by judges around the globe, this new edition goes beyond the fundamentals to dive into cutting-edge areas of interest that today's judges need to navigate. Subjects new to the second edition: The use (and misuse) of artificial intelligence in judgment writing. Stay ahead of the curve as AI begins to influence legal writing. Visual aids in judgments: learn how diagrams, graphs and infographics can make judgments more comprehensible and memorable. Effective use of precedent: read about the challenging balance between being thorough and overwhelming your readers. The power of storytelling: discover how narrative techniques can make your judgments clearer and more powerful. Structured writing and editing: develop a process that ensures your judgments are well-organised and polished. Proper use of footnotes and gender-inclusive language: enhance the professionalism and inclusivity of your work. Collaborative judgment-writing: understand better the dynamics of working on a judgment-writing team. With more real-world examples from case law, a 'key learnings and question' section with each chapter to help judges turn theory into practice and an entirely new exploration of what great fiction writers have taught about writing, The Art and Craft of Judgment Writing is not just a book: it's a roadmap to becoming a better writer and a more effective judge. - Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

9781837230709

680 pages ; 24 cm