Separate opinions in decisions

Decision files can have separate opinions within them. Usually, a covering note supplied with the judgments source document indicates where separate opinions begin in the text.

judgment/textMatter/div1[@role and titleGroup/creatorInfo]

You can also look for the following headings to decide where a separate opinion begins in the text:

“Declaration of Judge ...” (where ... is the name of a particular judge)
“Declaration de M. le Juge ...”
“Dissenting opinion of Judge ...”
“Opinion dissidente de M. le Juge ...”
“Individual opinion by Judge ...”
“Concurring opinion of Judge ...”

Capture separate opinions within a div1 element within the judgment element just like other decisions and add a role attribute capturing the opinion type to the div1 element. Establish the type of an opinion by referring to the Opinion column in the Judges field of the headnote. If there is no information here specifying the type of opinion use separateOpinion.

Opinion types for the role attribute

Type of opinion	role
Dissenting opinion	`dissentingOpinion`
Concurring opinion	`concurringOpinion`
Individual opinion	`individualOpinion`
Separate opinion	`separateOpinion`

Begin a separate opinion with a creatorInfo element containing the full name of the arbitrator or judge. Capture the title of the section in a titleGroup at the beginning of the div1 section.

Separate judge or arbitrator's opinion

media/164682_image12.png

Output XML


      <judgment xml:lang="orig">
        <textMatter><!-- material omitted here --><div1 id="law-iic-3-2004-div1-2" role="separateOpinion">
 <titleGroup>
   <title>
     <p>Separate Opinion of Justice Robertson</p>
   </title>
   <creatorInfo>
     <p>Geoffrey Robertson</p>
   </creatorInfo>
 </titleGroup>
 <div2 id="law-iic-3-2004-div2-10">
   <p>
                         <enumerator>1</enumerator>After a series of exchanges between the parties in
                respect to international law issues which were raised and then either abandoned or
                agreed to be irrelevant, we find a final expostulation by the applicant:</p>
   <!-- material
      omitted here -->
 </div2></div1>
        </textMatter>
      </judgment>

Enter the name of the judge or arbitrator in the creatorInfo element in exactly the same way as it is given in the judge element of the headnote even if this is different to how their name and title may be presented at this point in the text of the decision.

If the separate opinion is from more than one judge, capture a sentence listing the names and use creatorInfo elements, and separate the names with commas and and as appropriate.

Creator information for more than one judge


      <creatorInfo>
        <p>Geoffrey Robertson and Lord Joe Bloggs</p>
      </creatorInfo>
      <creatorInfo>
        <p>Geoffrey Robertson, Lord Joe Bloggs, and Jozef Blokh, Jr. </p>
      </creatorInfo>