Appellate Recruitment Patterns in the Higher British Judiciary: 1850 - 1990 Page: 28
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characteristics or attributes acquired earlier in a judge's life cause the development of
later obtained attributes (thus the term "causal model"). The attributes may be linked
directly or indirectly to the ultimate dependent variable of appellate promotion. Tate
assumes, and attempts to structure the hypotheses in a manner to avoid two-way
causation or "feedback."
The first group of hypotheses is structured from the judge's family background,
which is of course acquired at birth. The hypotheses follow from the theory that higher
social status will give the future appellate judge certain life advantages not shared, at
least to the same extent, as judges who are not promoted. Tate hypothesizes that family
background will both lead to certain educational and career advantages which indirectly
lead to appellate promotion, as well as directly influencing the ultimate decision of the
Lord Chancellor to recommend promotion.
The educational advantages Tate predicts are that a judge from a socially
prominent family will receive a "Clarendon School" secondary education (the elite of the
elite British "public" (i.e., private tuition) schools), and also proceed to a "prestige"
college at Oxford or Cambridge, the universities of choice among the British elite. Elite
education may in turn lead to career advance through not only what one learns but the
social and business contacts one may develop in the process.
The career advantage Tate foresees is the ability of a young barrister to "take
silk"'0 (i.e., become a senior barrister, or Queen's Counsel) earlier in his career than later.
to As emphasized elsewhere, by using the term "take silk" I by no means intend to imply that becoming a
QC is automatic and a decision wholly of the barrister. It is not. Until the current reforms of the present
Lord Chancellor, who removed the Government from the process of awarding silk, barristers applied to the
Lord Chancellor to become a QC - in a highly competitive process. In the modern era, many more
barristers have been turned down than accepted. Not all applications are at the initiation of the barrister,28
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Thomas, Bruce K. Appellate Recruitment Patterns in the Higher British Judiciary: 1850 - 1990, dissertation, December 2004; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4650/m1/37/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .