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Regulating judicial conduct effectively
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Date Issued
2018-06-21
Date Available
2019-04-17T11:42:09Z
Abstract
Regulation is about control or steering of behaviours through the setting of norms, the monitoring of behaviour for compliance and the correction of behaviours which deviate from the norms. A chapter on the regulation of judicial conduct in Ireland could be a relatively short one. Seeking to strike a balance between independence and accountability of the judiciary, greater weight has been placed on judicial independence from executive and legislative branches over the first near-century of the State. In part this is because of a recognition that accountability for conduct can impinge on independence. One might go further and suggest that in Ireland, to an unusual extent by international standards, there has been a priority given not only to the independence of the judiciary as an institution vis-Ã -vis the other branches of the state, but also the independence of the judges as between themselves. It is this last implicit doctrine, that judges are not even to be regulated by each other, which appears to have inhibited substantial development of regulatory machinery over judicial conduct, notwithstanding calls for such developments from influential voices. Even in the absence of significant structures for oversight of judicial conduct, there is a strong view that the state has been well served by a judiciary and that the judiciary has demonstrated strong independence and competence, with a sense that judicial misconduct has been very much at the margins, the exceptional case.
This chapter first addresses the challenges of judicial conduct. Second it will offer an analysis of how judicial conduct is regulated in Ireland. focusing on the significant gap which exists between the implicit and informal regulation of judicial conduct in respect of most matters and the, as yet not fully tested, constitutional provisions for removal of judges for misbehaviour or incapacity. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how proposals for a Judicial Council and Judicial Conduct Committee might be shaped into an architecture of effective regulation.
Type of Material
Book Chapter
Publisher
Institute of Public Administration
Language
English
Status of Item
Not peer reviewed
Part of
Carolan, E. (ed.). Judicial Power in Ireland
ISBN
978-1-910393-19-2
This item is made available under a Creative Commons License
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Name
Scott Regulating Judicial Conduct FinalFinalRev.docx
Size
57.17 KB
Format
Owning collection
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