Sir William R. Meredith C.J.O.: The Search for Authority

This paper is a study of the judicial mind of Sir William R. Meredith, especially his beliefs about the common law and statutes. I offer it as a tribute to John Willis, with respect for his humane and restless mind, and with gratitude for all that he taught me. I am especially grateful for so many long talks on Sundays, when I had just begun to teach and he had been acknowledged for decades to be a great teacher, and we were both worried about Monday's classes. I discovered only slowly how much I learned listening to him struggling to re-think grand questions about law, and how much his students learned on Mondays from his struggle. I don't think Meredith struggled much with grand questions, but I do think he was a humane man, and perhaps in this way he is an appropriate subject for my tribute.