Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 14:34:10 +0100

From: Andrew Burrows

Subject: Question from John Murphy

I would have thought that the recent overruling of Walkley in Horton v Sadler [2006] UKHL 27 is as close to this as one could get. See Lord Hoffmann's disbelief that he could be saying that Lords Diplock and Wilberforce had been wrong.

Andrew Burrows

John R Murphy wrote:

Dear all,

I got the following question put to me by a colleague:

"Can you think of any cases in which a judge has said something to the effect that: "The court would have liked to have overruled this precedent some years ago but felt unable to do so while the judge responsible for the precedent was still alive"? Obviously there can't have been anything so brutally worded, and in English law I suppose it could only happen after 1966, but basically I'm looking for examples of where judges have clearly been unwilling to disturb a precedent until the precedent-setting judge was no longer around".

I couldn't think of any case off the top of my head. Is there anyone out there who knows of any such statement?

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