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Past or Present?
A student who is helping a partner with writing a book (I hope he gets due credit) called to ask which verb tense to use in describing cases.
My answer was that it depends on context.
I think you would say that a judge found, held or stated something in a particular case.
Perhaps where you are talking about a judge’s obiter dicta rather than ratio decidendi, you would use the present tense: In this case, So-and-so J discusses the applicable factors. But you would say, The judge said in dicta that …
Where the description is depersonalised, the present seems more normal: the case sets out a three-part test, stands for a proposition, distinguishes an earlier case.
But let me know what you think.
Start the discussion!