On The Judges' Professional Ethics

Under the law condition, judicature is a public right. And a judge is an officer who is in control of rights. A judge is a professional person who engages in law, and their sense of honor and moral responsibility are based on the inner regulations and the ethics standards. From professional point of view, this article discussed judge's professional ethical characteristics under judicature condition, and tried to discover some problems and solutions of our own nation by, on theoretical points, the formation of judge's professional ethics and norms in the western countries.The value of a law is realized by the persons who are in control of it and practice it. As a judge, he can realize the justice of a society only by means of verdicting independently and fairly, and achieve the trust of people. By doing so, a judge has possessed a special position in a society. In order to assure judges'independent positions and privileges which are necessary for judges to verdict independently and fairly, this demands that judges must enhance ethical self-discipline, self-culture, and win credit and prestige by their self-conscience. So it is necessary to increase judges'moral self-discipline, professional self-discipline, and intensify the external supervision and make it become the internal impetus of judges'ethics.Chapterâ… On the Judges'Professionalization and Ethics The peculiarity of judges'professional ethics is due to the characteristics of judges'profession and special functions. Judges, as a special group of law, came into being in the process of judicature specializing and coordinating the clash of social pluralistic values and pluralistic benefits. The main task of judges'professionalization is to establish a specialized, stable and lofty moral judge team in order to undertake social justice and mission. When the judicature rights are separated from the public rights, judges have acquired the special status and privileges, and gradually have formed the special honor and professional moral, then in the end, have evolved the fair, independent characteristics.Chapterâ…¡On the History of Judges'Professional Ethics The judges'professional ethics gave birth to the westerners'judicature ideology. Their ideology, at the beginning, contained the demands for judges'professional ethics. They realized judicature was the ultimate guarantee for social justice, and also the judges'special roles and ethics in a society. Plato and Aristotle believed that a judge should be justice and knew how to restrain his behavior. While Romans regarded judicature as the wit of justice and injustice. Because of their profound knowledge and lofty characters, the judges were respectfully called"sages"and they had been the most influential status in ancient Rome. With the emerging of Christianity, judges began to pay more attention to the justice, rationality of judicature procedures and the professional moral characters, the specific moral regulations. Up till now, the regulations of western traditional judges'professional ethics are still regarded as modern judges'behavior norms.Chapterâ…¢On the Construction of Modern Judges'Professional Ethics Judges'social position and tasks are decided by the constitution. The judges'professional moral characters make them choose the constitutionalism, and on the other hand, the constitutionalism provides a guarantee for it. We should comprehend judges'rights, obligations and responsibility according to the value of a constitution. The idea of judges'responsibility is embodied in the onus ethics, consequentialism ethics and virtue ethics. In order to enhance the public confidence to judges, they must behave fairly and independently. To behave fairly is the judges'moral compulsory and judicature compulsory. It is the highest level and the core of the judges'professional ethics. From the western natural justice to the procedure justice; from the justice regulations and expectation of different countries to the discussion of the judges'responsibility which is due to the enlargement of modern judicature, all these require much higher level of the judges'professional ethics. Judges'independence is the basis of judicature justice. It is the most important moral characters to a judge. It embodies in judges'value neutrality, clean and honesty image, adhering to principles and fearless spirit.Chapterâ…£On the Protection of Judges'Professional Ethics The protection of judges'professional ethics mainly relies on the judges'election, promotion and professional ethics. The election and promotion systems decide their future. Electing judge candidates from experienced professionals is favorable to keeping its tradition; and makes it maintain higher level of homogeneity and wit; and forms a stable, qualified social power. On the premise of not damaging judges'independence, it is important to prevent judges from duty neglecting or immoral actions, enhance external supervision and keep their honor and prestige when they face complicated situation.Chapter V On the Ethical Problems in the Construction of Modern Chinese judges'Professionalization Under the judicature condition, we must define judges'role and position, right and duty. Because China has neglected the characters of judges'profession for a long time, this results in a lot of problems in the judges'profession construction. A judge's double capacities, a civil servant and a judge, lead to the role clash and the contradiction of ethical construction. Judicature power which is attached to administration, traditional belief, and lower level professionalization, all these lead to judicature system works improperly. This provides a chance for judicature corruption. Judicature corruption is the summit of moral losing, it can make people lose their trust, and damage the judicature power. A law-ruled country needs independence, justice and noble moral judges. This proposes a new task for us to discuss the judges'professional ethics.Chapterâ…¥On the Thought of Constructing Judges'Professional Ethics Although China has made effort to construct judges'professional ethics, it still has not found a sound constructive thought with Chinese situation. At present, Chinese judges are not suitable for the construction of judicature and professionalization. We must define a judge's roles, status, rights, duties and responsibility in socialism judicature construction. So this article proposes a security system for establishing judges'professional ethics to enhance their internal ethics, legislate to judges'professional ethics, perfect the judicature regulations, construct the belief on Chinese judges ethics in order to conform to the need of judges'professional construction.