Judicial Ethical Integrity: Challenges and Solutions

Abstract

Challenges facing the judiciary and solutions to those challenges were the topics of two afternoon panels at a conference hosted by UC Hastings College of the Law titled "Professional Ethical Integrity: Cornerstone for Rule of Law Reform Around the Globe" (February 26-27, 2015). This Article - a contribution to the law review symposium issue for that conference - contextualizes and summarizes the two panels. The panel on ethical integrity challenges facing judges included Anthony J. Scirica, Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and a Senior Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law; Hualing Fu, Professor of Law at the University of Hong Kong; and Me Mario Joseph, a human rights attorney and co-founder and managing attorney of the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux in Haiti. The panel on solutions to those challenges was moderated by Judge William A. Fletcher of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and included Judge Evgeni Georgiev, a Bulgarian trial court judge; Judge John R. Tunheim of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota; and Mirte Postema, then Senior Program Officer for Judicial Independence with the Due Process of Law Foundation. The Author, Morris Ratner, was one of the conference organizers.

Keywords: Ethics, Rule of Law, Judges, Judicial Ethical Integrity