C. Northcote Parkinson C. Northcote Parkinson Cyril Northcote Parkinson (30 July 1909 – 9 March 1993) was a British naval historian and author of some 60 books, the most famous of which was his best-seller "Parkinson's Law" (1957), in which Parkinson advanced Parkinson's law, stating that "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion", an insight which led him to be regarded as an important scholar in public administration and management. The youngest son of William Edward Parkinson (1871–1927), an art master at North East County School and from 1913 principal of York School of Arts and Crafts, and
Mechanisms of the English common law strictly speaking that principle is too wide to be said to be "ratio decidendi". Nevertheless, if that broad principle is approved and applied by later courts, then the principle will eventually be treated as "ratio". A particular example is the broad "neighbour principle", enunciated by Lord Atkin in "Donoghue v Stevenson" 1932, which has become the basis of the modern law of negligence. When judges may face conflicting precedents, they may select the preferable case. Dissenting judgments are not "ratio", and so must be "obiter". Sometimes, with the passage of time, more attention is given to the dissenting judgment that