Well, Lord Mansfield had to make a decision right off the bat, because if James Somerset was a legal thing, he was not eligible for a writ of habeus corpus, only if he could be a legal person.
Astfel, Lord Mansfield a fost nevoit să ia o hotărâre imediat, pentru că dacă James Somerset era un bun, n-avea dreptul la <i>habeus corpus</i>: doar o persoană juridică are dreptul.