A Rule for the Exceptional Day
Article by Ayman Fouad Abdelgawad
Rules are often designed around a day when everything works reasonably well. The necessary person is available, the information is complete, and the next step can happen on time. Then an exceptional day arrives.
A system without room for that day can become needlessly harsh. A system with unlimited exceptions can become arbitrary. People who know whom to ask may receive flexibility, while others encounter an immovable rule.
The problem is therefore larger than whether an official should be compassionate. An exception needs a structure of its own: an intelligible reason, a record of the circumstances, and some way of considering whether similar cases are being treated similarly.
That structure protects both sides. The applicant does not have to rely entirely on personal charm or disclosure of distress. The decision-maker can explain a departure without pretending that the original rule never mattered.
There will still be borderline cases. No description of exceptional circumstances can anticipate every possible combination of events. Judgement remains necessary, but it can be exercised in a way that is visible enough to discuss.
An institution can also learn from the frequency of its exceptions. If the same departure is repeatedly necessary, perhaps the ordinary rule has been drawn around an unrealistic version of ordinary life. What appears to be a stream of unusual people may instead reveal a recurring defect in the design.
A good rule should make routine decisions dependable. It should also provide somewhere to stand when reality fails to resemble the routine. Fairness is weakened when flexibility becomes a private favour, but it is weakened too when consistency means refusing to notice anything the form did not anticipate.
A serious objection
Discretion can recognise a need that a rule misses, but it can also reward confidence, familiarity or influence. An exception is more defensible when its reason could apply to another person in comparable circumstances and the decision can be explained without exposing private details.
Read further
- Who Gets Heard? — a route through the related writing and artwork.
- The Second Reader — a reflection on the value of meaningful review.