Ethical judicial challenges seem to increase year on year. The public’s confidence in a justice system depends upon its perception of the integrity and standards of ethical behaviour and professional conduct demonstrated by the judiciary within their official role and in their private life.

Key elements in establishing integrity are high quality procedures for judicial appointments, investigating complaints about judicial behaviour as well as ensuring the fair and transparent conduct of proceedings. At the same time, safeguards are required to protect judicial independence.

This new programme explores the key principles and recognised standards of ethical legal and judicial behaviour and examines suitable frameworks to promote their importance and secure the demonstration of proper judicial conduct.

This is week two of The Judicial Case Management and Legal Ethics Toolkit.

Course Objectives

On completion, you will be able to:

• Define the recognised principles and standards of ethical behaviour and judicial conduct required to uphold principles of independence, equality, diversity and fairness both in and outside of the court environment
• Examine the need for clearly defined codes of conduct based on common judicial values to establish clear standards of behaviour that promote judicial independence whilst safeguarding the integrity of the judicial system and its staff
• Assess judicial accountability and undertake performance evaluation
• Understand common ethical issues and risks and learn to manage them effectively
• Put in place strategies to reduce any corruption in your judiciary
• Establish fair, transparent and effective recruitment, performance evaluation and disciplinary processes that meet internationally recognised standards
• Establish and maintain a productive relationship between the judiciary and the media

Key Topics

• Examining internationally recognised standards of ethical behaviour and judicial conduct
• Developing judicial codes of conduct, guidance, monitoring and training
• Designing fair and transparent judicial recruitment and performance evaluation processes
• Combating corruption in judicial systems
• Creating a system for dealing fairly with complaints about judicial behaviour
• Understanding the working relationship between the judiciary and the media

All courses will be conducted entirely in English. A proficient level of both spoken and written English is required by all delegates so that they are able to fully benefit from the course and participate in our interactive style of training.