The value of legal formalism is highly limited in society today as the prospect of formalism is impossible for any legal body to follow through with. In an ideal world, however, formalism would hold substantial value as it would allow society to run in a fair and structured way. However, there are too many complications that arise with formalism, such as a judge's moral values and personal beliefs et cetera. Further, formalism follows the belief that all situations will fit a section of the law and therefore no change or alteration of any rule is needed, which is simply not true. Arguments also believe that formalism allows people to be treated equally within the law but problems further arise with this, as if one were to follow what the rule …show more content…
Formalism is the belief that “the judge can reach the required decision [of a trial] without recourse to nonlegal normative consideration of morality or political philosophy”1. It is outright impossible for someone to simply disregard all their own beliefs, even in a professional situation. Judges may make a conscious effort to do so, but subconsciously these personal opinions will have an impact on the final outcome. An example, albeit extreme but still highly present, is that of racism. To this day the issue of racism is still existent in society, and this can be seen in numerous court cases. A report produced by the Ministry of Justice showed that black and Asian defendants are close to 20 percent more likely to be prosecuted than white defendants.2 Formalism believes that the rules are to be applied in a non prejudicial way, yet it can clearly be seen here that this is simply not the case. Of course this does not just apply to racism, as other personal beliefs will have an influence on a judges decisions, such as sexism, religion and moral values. The example purely demonstrates that legal formalism is not being followed in society today and therefore holds little …show more content…
These cases clearly show that only with a slight difference, that being one was the disconnection of a burglar alarm and the other the smashing of a security light, the outcome was completely different, as one appeal was allowed whereas another was refused. Therefore, the idea of legal formalism always making the client able to predict the outcome of a trial is