Professionals in the fields of law, policymakers, academics and other scholars, students and the general public will have an opportunity to better understand how final courts of appeal incorporate policy considerations in their decision-making during a distinguished lecture in the Mona Law Series and Reasoning Session.

The event, to be jointly hosted by The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Mona Faculty of Law and the Norman Manley and Hugh Wooding law schools’ Class of ’97, will take place on Wednesday in the Law Lecture Theatre II, at The UWI’s, Mona campus.

The distinguished lecture, being held under the theme ‘Judicial Policy Construction by Apex Courts’, will be delivered by Lord Reed of Allermuir, president of the Judicial Committee of the United Kingdom Privy Council.

It will be followed by a reasoning session to be moderated by Dr Christopher Malcolm, deputy dean, Faculty of Law, Mona. The discussants will include Michael Hylton, KC; Philippa Davies; Barbados-based attorney-at-law Larry Smith, a member of the Class of ’97; and Ayana Robinson, second-year student in the Faculty of Law, Mona.

The matters to be discussed will focus on the factors that influence how judges decide, particularly in apex/final courts.

The expert panel is expected to engage in a thought-provoking discussion on the non-black letter law impact of socio-economic, cultural, historical, international messaging, and other factors in decision-making, offering diverse perspectives and enriching the dialogue.