As tax law and cases become increasingly complex, it is crucial for judgments to be comprehensible and accessible. Michael Conlon QC considers what makes a good tax judgment - and he explains why, in most tax cases, brevity is but a pious hope.
Over the course of my career I must have read thousands of court and tribunal judgments. I am sometimes asked: ‘What makes a good tax judgment?’ It is tempting to recall a bail hearing before Croom-Johnson J. So irked was the learned judge at my opponent mis-pronouncing Latin (Latin was allowed in those days) he began his extempore judgment with the words: ‘My judgment will be short – like the “i” in sub judice.’ In Hamlet too Polonius says: ‘Brevity is the soul of wit and tediousness its limbs and outward flourishes.’
Shakespeare intended irony here but these lines have become...
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As tax law and cases become increasingly complex, it is crucial for judgments to be comprehensible and accessible. Michael Conlon QC considers what makes a good tax judgment - and he explains why, in most tax cases, brevity is but a pious hope.
Over the course of my career I must have read thousands of court and tribunal judgments. I am sometimes asked: ‘What makes a good tax judgment?’ It is tempting to recall a bail hearing before Croom-Johnson J. So irked was the learned judge at my opponent mis-pronouncing Latin (Latin was allowed in those days) he began his extempore judgment with the words: ‘My judgment will be short – like the “i” in sub judice.’ In Hamlet too Polonius says: ‘Brevity is the soul of wit and tediousness its limbs and outward flourishes.’
Shakespeare intended irony here but these lines have become...
If you or your firm subscribes to Taxjournal.com, please click the login box below:
If you do not subscribe but are a registered user, please enter your details in the following boxes:
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