Strategies and techniques used in the preparation of judicial opinions

Abstract

The structure of a judicial opinion is determined by specific legal provisions regulating particular kinds of proceedings. These provisions are of general character and specify only the basic elements of judicial opinions, and filling them with a content is a task for the authors. It can be done by using strategies and techniques of the preparation of judicial opinions, which are related to the result to be achieved and the tools that are used for this purpose. Different strategies in the preparation of the ‘historical’ part of a judicial opinion (containing factual findings) and the legal reasoning (that reflects the main judicial reasoning in the case) may be distinguished. The former category includes the strategy of referring to detailed elements of the historical part of a judicial opinion and the strategy of a condensed historical part of the opinion. The latter includes the discursive strategy and the strategy of a monologue. Among the techniques that are used by authors of judicial opinions in the frame of these strategies are: the technique of ornament, the technique of avoidance of obviousness, the technique of legitimisation by the number of utterances from the judiciary and legal scholarship, the technique of leaving things unsaid, the technique of result-oriented content exposing, or the technique of judicial opinions of courts of higher instance.