Westminster Hall

Dating from the reign of William Rufus (1087-1100), son of William the Conqueror, Westminster Hall still stands today. In 1999 a ceremony was held in the Hall to celebrate nine hundred years of its continuous use.

Originally, the Hall was designed as a place for feasting and entertaining. It then became the site of the 'Royal Council' of bishops, nobles and ministers —later known as Parliament. In 1265 the first true English parliament to include elected representatives was summoned there by Simon de Montfort. Parliament did not meet in the Hall on a regular basis, but at that time it was the largest Hall in Europe, and this helped to make it the judicial and administrative centre of the kingdom.

Later, the Hall housed the courts of law, and was the site of many notable state trials including those of Thomas More, Charles I, the Gunpowder Plot conspirators and Warren Hastings. With its shops and stalls, selling wigs, pens, books and other legal paraphernalia, it became the centre of London legal life.

The Hall, which is open to the public, is now used for major public ceremonies —such as the presentation in 1977 of Addresses to the Queen on the occasion of her Silver Jubilee, the opening of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in 1986 and a commemoration in 1995 to mark 50 years since the end of World War II. It is also the place of the lying in state of monarchs, consorts and (more rarely) distinguished statesmen. Sir Winston Churchill, whose 80th birthday had been celebrated in the Hall, lay in state there when he died in 1965; and in April 2002 many thousands queued to pay their respects, following the death of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

THE INVISIBLE PALACE —PART I 'JUDGE-MADE' LAW • 25

The common law, originally based upon the common customs of town and country and gradually developed over the centuries, has become one of the most prized features of our national way of life. Many of our most famous judges have been known as 'great common lawyers', committed to the advancement of our laws and the rule of law. The common law has been aptly described as 'The common-sense of the community, crystallised and formulated by our forefathers'. This is because, as we shall see, many of our laws have been based upon what the courts would expect the 'reasonable' man to do and think in certain situations.

THE REASONABLE MAN

The common law is still very much part of our law. It is applied in courts throughout the country. In many instances, when developing the law and deciding cases, in particular in the civil law, judges have tested the behaviour of the people whose cases they were trying against the standards of what might be expected of an 'ordinary, reasonable' person faced with similar circumstances. In Chapter 12 we will see examples of this in both the civil and the criminal law.

In Uncommon Law, a parody of the law and legal system written in 1935, A. P. Herbert puts the following words into the mouth of a fictional judge:

The Common Law of England has been laboriously built about a mythical figure—the figure of 'The Reasonable Man'. He is an ideal, a standard, the embodiment of all those qualities we demand of the good citizen. No matter what particular department of human life which falls to be considered in these courts, sooner or later we have to face the question: Was this or was it not the conduct of a reasonable man?

In considering how this test should be applied in any particular case, the courts are prepared to hear evidence so that they might better understand all the problems involved. They do not expect standards of conduct that are unreasonably high; nor have they allowed people to be judged by standards that are unreasonably low. Their ideas of reasonableness may be based upon 'common sense'; but it is not common sense simply because it is the individual judge's impression of what is right; it is common sense that makes sense, and is reasonable because it has survived the test of thorough argument, and has the force of reason. This is why the common law has a reputation for sound common sense and justice.

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