CPL Seminar: 'The Accountability of Judges'

Speaker: John Bell
Location: Moot Court Room, Faculty of Law

The paper offers a framework for understanding how judges are accountable for their decisions and so are perceived as legitimate. The paradigm of accountability is linked to trust based on the performance of a public service. Unlike the statements such as the European Judges Charter (1997) and the views of some judges, we need to look beyond giving reasons for specific decisions or outcomes as the primary mechanism for accountability, particularly outside the common law systems, even though that reason giving is important. The first part of the paper tries to articulate an appropriate conception of accountability for the judicial role. The second part then examines the mechanisms which make the institution of judging appear legitimate such that individual decisions are received out of a background of broad trust and confidence that judges are serving the interest of justice and providing a service in the interests of the public.

Faculty Members and Visitors, PhD students and LLM Public Law students are welcome.

For more information contact Mark Elliott (mce1000@cam.ac.uk)