POLS 1200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Canadian Judicial Council, Judicial Independence, Blue Law
24 Nov 2017
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Lecture 6: actors in the legal system - the judiciary. Want judges to be fair, want them to have accountability/credibility. When talking about judicial independence: they are independent from government, government actors (ex. police), and public opinion. There is number of groups/bodies of institutions where we want to preserve judicial independence. Judges don"t have to leave unless their removed: don"t have to worry if they make a decision and its in their scope to make it. Have a fixed selection process that we use to preserve independence. Judges are required to make decisions, but also required to uphold the supremacy of the constitution, common law, etc. Want them cut off from the influence of public opinion, government actors, politicians. Don"t want them thinking about political crisis when they have to address them in the court. While we want to ensure judicial independence- we also want some kind of accountability.
