Over ten years ago the Working Group on a Courts Commission produced a report on the question of judicial conduct and ethics. This was against the backdrop of the resignation in 1999 of a High Court and a Supreme Court judge in what was known as “the Sheedy affair”. One of the recommendations of the working group was the establishment of a Judicial Council which would promote excellence and efficiency in the performance of judicial functions and would provide a process for investigating complaints of alleged breaches of judicial ethics. After a drawn out development of the concept the general scheme of the Judicial Council Bill 2010 has been published.

The Judicial Council Bill 2010 proposes to establish a Judicial Conduct Committee with lay participation which will investigate and decide upon complaints made against members of the judiciary. The Minister for Justice & Law Reform commented that the participation of lay persons on the committee will provide an open and transparent means of investigating complaints. The Bill will formally establish the Judicial Council as an independent corporate entity with its own Board.

The Bill also provides for the Judicial Studies Institute to be put on a statutory footing. The Institute will be responsible for the preparation and distribution of judicial guidelines, publication of materials, organisation of conferences and meetings, provision of training in relation to IT and the dissemination of information on sentencing.

Stakeholders have welcomed the general scheme proposed by the Bill, with the Chief Justice commenting favourably on behalf of the judiciary and the Law Society and Bar Council responding positively to it.  It is hoped that once the legislation is in force it will facilitate increased transparency and accountability for the judiciary and its implementation will copper-fasten the already high standard of judicial behaviour which prevail in each court in this jurisdiction.

This article was authored by Helena Walsh.