Judges to vote on first-ever judicial complaints procedure

The State’s judges will vote on Friday on new conduct and ethics guidelines to form a framework for the first-ever judicial misconduct complaints procedure here.

The 167 members of the Judicial Council have been considering the guidelines since they were circulated to them last month.

Under the procedure, a committee of judges and lay persons has the power to ask the Minister for Justice to have the Government consider whether to exercise its power, under Article 35.4 of the Constitution, to have a judge removed from office on grounds of serious misconduct or incapacity.

Prepared by the council’s Judicial Conduct Committee (JCC), the guidelines will be put before Friday’s meeting of the council, being held remotely, for approval.

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Based on principles including judicial independence, impartiality and equal treatment of all who come before the courts, the guidelines will advise judges as to how they should conduct themselves and also form the framework for a judicial misconduct complaints procedure.

The Judicial Council Act 2019 requires that procedure to be operable by late June this year.

Sharp focus

The lack of guidelines was brought into sharp focus during the Golfgate controversy which saw Supreme Court judge Mr Justice Séamus Woulfe come under strong pressure from colleagues to resign over his attendance at a golf dinner in August 2020 during the pandemic.

The Supreme Court attempted to address the matter via an informal dispute resolution process, but that ran into a number of difficulties. The then chief justice, Frank Clarke, ultimately published correspondence revealing his personal view was that Mr Justice Woulfe should resign, but the latter refused, insisting there was no basis for his resignation.

According to judicial sources, the new guidelines are based on seven international principles of judicial conduct known as the Bangalore Principles, approved by the United Nations Human Rights Commission in 2003.

While not having the status of rules or a code, the guidelines are intended to assist judges in coming to their own decisions concerning conduct and ethics, including, for example, whether to withdraw from hearing a case.

Judges should withdraw from hearing cases if they, or a close relative, have a financial interest in the outcome, or in cases where a judge, or a family member, has shares in a company involved in proceedings coming before that judge.