Minority Opinion of the Court and its Significant Contribution to the Subsequent Legal Developments

Abstract

It is a well-accepted fact that the majority opinion represents the prevailing opinion of a court. However, judges are free to have an opinion that differs from the rationale presented in the majority opinion, and, as a result, the decision made in a case is known as a dissenting opinion. Judges are allowed to voice their opinions freely when deciding the cases. Therefore, it ensures greater democracy in the decision-making process and promotes democratic debate and the freedom to disagree when delivering judgments. When analyzing the minority views delivered by judges these opinions also have a significant impact on the establishment of important legal concepts. However, there is a scholarly debate, about the contribution and to what extent the minority rulings serve as the foundation for subsequent legal developments. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to discuss how minority opinions serve as the basis for future legal improvements or changes and how the well-reasoned minority opinions contributed to enhancing public confidence in the legal system and stimulating legal debate and discussions within the legal community. And analyze to what extent they have influenced to safeguarding the fundamental rights and civil liberties guaranteed under the constitutions. To achieve the research objectives articulated above, the paper adopts a doctrinal research method and involves the study of both primary and secondary sources. The first part of this paper discusses the importance of minority opinion in democratic debate in the judicial system. And in the second part, it investigates how the minority judgements significantly influenced subsequent legal developments