The Dimensions of Judicial Impartiality

60 Pages Posted: 6 Mar 2012 Last revised: 11 Jul 2013

See all articles by Charles G. Geyh

Charles G. Geyh

Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington

Date Written: 2013

Abstract

Scholars have traditionally analyzed judicial impartiality piecemeal, in disconnected debates on discrete topics. As a consequence, current understandings of judicial impartiality are balkanized and muddled. This article seeks to reconceptualize judicial impartiality comprehensively, across contexts. In an era when “we are all legal realists now,” perfect impartiality — the complete absence of bias or prejudice — is at most an ideal, with “impartial enough” becoming, of necessity, the realistic goal. Understanding when imperfectly impartial is nonetheless impartial enough is aided by conceptualizing judicial impartiality in three distinct dimensions: A procedural dimension in which impartiality affords parties a fair hearing; a political dimension in which impartiality promotes public confidence in the courts; and an ethical dimension in which impartiality is a standard of good conduct core to a judge’s self-definition. The seeming contradictions that cut across contexts in which judicial impartiality problems arise, can for the most part be explained with reference to the dimensions those problems inhabit and the constraints under which regulation in those dimensions are subject. Thus, being impartial enough to assure parties a fair hearing in the procedural dimension may or may not be impartial enough to satisfy the public in the political dimension, which may or may not be impartial enough to ensure that judges are behaving honorably in the ethical dimension. Analyzing partiality problems through the lens of the dimensions they occupy not only resolves many of the imponderables that have long plagued the subject, but also reveals a distinct trend, in which impartiality is being transformed from a value traditionally regulated largely by judges and the legal establishment in the procedural and ethical dimensions, to one that is increasingly the province of the political dimension, where it is regulated by the public and its elected representatives. By situating impartiality at the crossroads of judicial procedure, ethics and politics, this article offers a new perspective, not just on judicial impartiality, but also on the role of the American judiciary in the administration of justice and the political process.

Keywords: Judicial Impartiality, judicial recusal, judicial disqualification, judicial appointments, judicial elections, judicial activism, judicial independence, Twombley, Iqbal, judicial ethics, model code of judicial conduct, judicial accountability

Suggested Citation

Geyh, Charles G., The Dimensions of Judicial Impartiality (2013). Florida Law Review, Vol. 65, 2013, Indiana Legal Studies Research Paper No. 201, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2016522 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2016522

Charles G. Geyh (Contact Author)

Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington ( email )

211 S. Indiana Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47405
United States

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