Self-study
Tom: Critics of recent high court decisions claim that judges' willingness to abide by earlier decisions is necessary to avoid legal chaos. █████ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ █████ ██████████ █████ ██████████ ███ ██ ████ ██ ███ █████ ██████ ███████ █████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ███ █████ ██ ██ ████████
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Speaker 1 Summary
Recently, the high court has overturned earlier decisions. There’s been criticism of the court on the grounds that judges’ willingness to follow precedent is necessary to avoid legal chaos. Tom rejects this criticism, because judges have often overturned legal precedent in the past without causing harm.
Speaker 2 Summary
Mary agrees that judges have overturned precedent in the past, but says that this was only when the previous rulings were old and outdated. The high court’s recent decisions overturned more recent decisions, which makes people view the law as unstable. Her implicit point is that the criticism of the court’s recent decisions is valid.
Objective
We’re looking for a point of disagreement. The speakers disagree about whether the criticism of the high court’s recent decisions is valid. Tom thinks it isn’t, but Mary thinks it is.
2.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ███████ ███ ███ █████
a
whether the overturning ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██████████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██████
This is a point of disagreement. Tom thinks the high court’s recent decisions overturning precedents won’t lead to harm. We know this because he thinks we should ignore the criticism of those decisions. Mary thinks the decisions diminish the law, or in other words, cause harm.
b
whether the overturning ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██████████ ███ ███████████ █████████
Neither speaker comments on whether the high court’s decisions were politically motivated. Tom refers to the political motivations of critics of the decisions. But he doesn’t say anything about the motivations of the court.
c
whether critics of ██████ ████ █████ █████████ ██ ████ ████████ ███ █████ ███ █████
Mary doesn’t express an opinion about this. She doesn’t comment on criticism of recent high court rulings and whether Tom’s characterization of that criticism is accurate.
d
whether a precedent ████ ██ ███████ ████████ ██ ██ ████ ██ █████ ██████████
Neither expresses an opinion about this. Tom doesn’t say anything about outdated precedents or the need to overturn them. Mary thinks overturning outdated precedents is acceptable, but doesn’t say whether we need to overturn them.
e
whether judicial decisions ████ ████ ███████████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████
Neither expresses an opinion about this. Tom doesn’t say anything about outdated precedents or progressive decisions. Mary doesn’t say anything about progressive decisions or how quickly they can be outdated.