Legal Definitions - minority report

A minority report is a report written by a member or members who disagree with the majority opinion of a committee. It sets forth their views and sometimes proposes an alternative recommendation. This type of report is often used in parliamentary law.

For example, if a committee is tasked with making a recommendation on a new policy, and the majority of the committee agrees on one course of action, but a minority of the committee disagrees, they may write a minority report to express their dissenting views and suggest a different approach.

Another example of a minority report is in the movie "Minority Report," where a special police unit uses precognitive technology to arrest and convict individuals before they commit crimes. One of the main characters, John Anderton, becomes the subject of a minority report when the precogs predict that he will commit a murder in the future, but he disagrees with this prediction and sets out to clear his name.

In both examples, the minority report represents a dissenting opinion that challenges the majority view and proposes an alternative perspective.