Lord Mansfield. To Be a Judge!

Jerzy Zajadło’s achievement is that by giving an impassioned account of  Lord Mansfield’s life and career he enhances the Polish reader’s knowledge of  courts and their functioning: of what a judge – as a skilled jurist - must grapple with in passing judgment; of his/her confrontation with social and political expectations. (Let us not be afraid to acknowledge that such confrontations happen, but they have to be faced in accord with a professional ethos and with the tools of the legal trade.) And in this matter the example of Mansfield – as an advisor to the King who was also able as a judge to maintain an appropriate distance and objectivity – may prove particularly instructive. The author manages successfully to capture the distinctive philosophy of judgment demonstrated by Mansfield. That philosophy is expressed in an approach to law that is inclusive and one that cares for the social roots that give it legitimacy. In this way, the author and his subject demonstrate a congruence of cognitive principles. Zajadło’s presentation of Lord Mansfield as a jurist takes place via a discussion of his judgments, and these judgments are the book’s real protagonists. Rarely have doubtful and controversial issues or the dilemmas of judgment been presented in such a readable form. 

Professor Ewa Łętowska