Is it judgment? Or judgement?

Views vary, but the established use of the English language by the legal profession is that a legally binding ruling by a court is a judgment – without an e. Whereas, in the more general sense, a view about some other matter is a judgement – with an e. Thus, in the course of a judgment, a judge might remark that the defendant made an error of judgement in making sexual advances to a waxwork mannequin of Marilyn Monroe in Madame Tussauds.

Almost always, when a journalist departs from that usage, it is because the journalist is simply unaware of it. Except in the United States, of course, where they Continue reading →