Professor-rat (buttdarling) wrote, @ 2009-10-12 10:43:00

Replace judges with computers
At least computers might do a better job

VICTORIAN Attorney-General Rob Hulls' description of judges as "well remunerated public servants" in a robust speech yesterday prompted a stinging rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Warren, who accused him of misunderstanding the structure of government.
Addressing a legal conference, Mr Hulls called on the judiciary to "embrace its true purpose as a service available for those who need its assistance".
"With public service come certain responsibilities," he told the gathering of judges and magistrates. "All public servants -- whether politicians, bureaucrats, police, teachers, nurses or judges -- need their conduct to be beyond reproach."
"As especially well remunerated public servants -- that is, there to serve the public good -- people look to judges for exemplary behaviour -- and they do so in the assumption that those who sit in judgment upon others cannot do so properly if their own conduct is tarnished," he said.
Chief Justice Warren hit back, changing her planned speech to the conference to directly challenge Mr Hulls' concerns.
"Judges serve the public, but they are not 'public servants'," she said. "To suggest so displays a complete misunderstanding of the structure of government.
"The judiciary is a separate arm of government and not part of the executive of which public servants are. It is a fundamental constitutional principle upon which our democracy is built."
Chief Justice Warren also took exception to the Attorney-General's call for the law to "descend from its lofty view of itself as a detached and immutable system".
"Court business is serious," she said. "Seriousness should not be confused or equated with loftiness. Court business is serious and warrants appropriate measures of dignity, gravity and reserve."
Chief Justice Warren said she and her judicial colleagues were the ones driving the proposed new system to deal with public complaints against the judiciary that Mr Hulls flagged in his speech.
But she was equally confident in the quality of work they were doing.
"In my experience when complaints do arise they are generally by aggrieved litigants who have lost the case and think it is the judge's fault.
"More often than not they are self-represented litigants who do not understand the need for pursuing matters through the appeal system," she said.
Last night Mr Hulls responded to Chief Justice Warren's speech.
"Judges are appointed to serve the public good and the public expect a transparent and accountable complaints mechanism," he said.

Presumably Judge Warren doesn't want any more public money now that she's no longer a public servant...she is honest though!
Judges are not public servants...they the STATES servants. And personally I haven't seen one that couldn't be replaced tomorrow by a basic Linux box connected to the internet.

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