Judicial Discretion and Doing between the Banks and their Customers: A Critical Analysis of the Supreme Court Decision in Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National Plc and Others

Judges have more discretion in cases than they themselves, legal scholars and practitioners acknowledge. The shape and outcome of the law ultimately depends on the judicial interpretation of its extent, scope and application. Judicial interpretation, it is argued, is influenced by judicial discretion. The core argument of this article is that judicial discretion outweighs other considerations in the Supreme Court's decision in Office of Fair Trading v Abbey National Plc and Others [2009] UKSC 6, [2010] 1 A.C. 696 (hereafter "the judgment"). The chief purpose of this paper is to identify the pivotal role of judicial discretion in the above case with a view to determining the parameters that informed the Supreme Court's decision. This article attempts to illustrate that the decision in the judgment rests mainly on the exercise of discretion on certain key issues. Adapted from the source document.