ABSTRACT
It is ‘an important aspect of the rule of law’, writes Neil MacCormick, ‘that courts and judges take seriously the established rules of the institutional normative order’. Precisely because of this the whole business of the justification of legal decisions will ‘focus on a syllogistic element, showing what rule is being applied, and how’ (MacCormick 2006: 5). According to MacCormick, Ward LJ’s final ruling in Re A demonstrates clearly that this case must be understood:
as a type-case, as a universally stated situation… [I]t is not some ineffable particular feature of this Jodie interacting with this Mary that justifies the decision but certain statable aspects of the relationship between them in the context of a particular practical dilemma.
