William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher: Court

William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher was British lawyer, judge and politician. Explore interesting quotes on court.
William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher: 32 quotes0 likes

“As to proceedings in Courts of justice, it is for the interest of all the public to hear what takes place in Court.”

William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher

Pittard v. Oliver (1891), L. J. 60 Q. B. D. 221.

“The Court ought never to come to the conclusion that two cases in the same Court, or in Courts of co-ordinate jurisdiction, are in conflict, unless it is obliged to. I agree that if two cases are in conflict the Court must say with which of them it agrees.”

William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher

Duke of Devonshire v. O'Connor (1890), L. R. 24 Q. B. D. 473.

“Parties cannot by consent give to the Court a power which it would not have without it.”

William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher

In re Ayhner; Ex parte Bischofishiem (1887), L. J. 57 Q. B. 168.

“I do not think that a Judge would wish any statement which he may have made in the course of a case, merely obiter and casually, to be treated as necessarily being an authority on the subject in question; but when a Judge has thought it necessary for the purpose of a case to make a deliberate examination of the practice of his Court, and to state such practice, I do not think the authority of such statement can be got rid of merely by arguing that it was not really necessary for the actual decision of the case. I think that such a statement if cited as an authority is entitled to great weight, though of course not binding on us as a decision.”

William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher

Ex parte Rev. James Bell Cox (1887), L. R. 20 Q. B. D. 19.

“In the administration of justice, whether by a recognised legal Court or by persons who, although not a legal public Court, are acting in a similar capacity, public policy requires that, in order that there should be no doubt about the purity of the administration, any person who is to take part in it should not be in such a position that he might be suspected of being biassed.”

William Brett, 1st Viscount Esher

Allinson v. General Council of Medical Education and Registration (1894), L. R. [1894], 1 Q. B. p. 758.