BOOK: Wolfgang ERNST, Rechtserkenntnis durch Richtermehrheiten. "Group choice" in europäischen Justiztraditionen. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016, XX + 362 p. ISBN 9783161543616, € 109

(image source: Mohr Siebeck)

Prof. dr. Wolfgang Ernst (Oxford) published Rechterkenntnis durch Richtermehrheiten (Mohr-Siebeck). This work was elected Book of the year 2016 in Germany (43  Neue Juristische Wochenschrift (2016), 3142,3143). 

Book abstract:

When judges in collegiate courts disagree, establishing the collective decision poses particular methodological problems. What is the result if judges disagree as to the quantitative or qualitative aspects of their decision? How can they fuse their individual legal reasoning into a joint opinion, if that is what the several judges are expected to deliver? These problems are not addressed by contemporary methodology, which focusses on the intellectual ratiocinations to be performed by an individual person. Yet, throughout the European development of collegiate judiciaries, these problems have challenged jurists and philosophers alike. Can a group of persons apply the law with an authoritative, meaningful group voice? This book seeks to describe the European legal history of judicial majoritarianism. It analyses the concepts of collegiate decision-making as advanced by legal scholars at key points in that history, and also shows the aggregation techniques actually employed by judiciaries in a number of legal systems. We are inspecting, so to speak, a laboratory of ideas and solutions that may contribute to theories of plural decisionmaking, aggregated and collective will and choice, and theories of group preference and identity.  

A full book abstract can be found here.

More information on the publisher's website.