Judgments

Draft judgments were necessarily circulated in confidence. It followed that all communications in response were covered by the same principle.

The circulation of draft judgments under strict terms of confidentiality had produced greater efficiency in the administration of justice (both civil and criminal) and improved convenience for the parties involved in the litigation, without any corresponding disadvantages to the legitimate public interest in the decisions reached by the court and the reasons for those decisions.

There was a temptation to declare that the confidentiality principle as it applied to draft judgments should never be waived. However, in the context of judicial processes directed to the better administration of justice adamantine rigidity would fail to allow for cases of high exceptionality.