Judges’ professional ethics construction and judicial justice
Judges’ professional ethics construction, as an important part of court team building, is an effective means to improve the quality of judges and shape their image. Because of this, courts across the country attach great importance to the construction of judges’ professional ethics, and have successively formulated a series of regulations, regulations, methods, etc. to regulate, restrict and supervise judges’ official behaviors, so as to cultivate and strengthen judges’ professional ethics awareness. Received very good results. On October 18 this year, the Supreme Court promulgated the "Basic Code of Professional Ethics for Judges of the People's Republic of China". The "Code" is a programmatic document guiding the construction of the style and team of the people's courts. But overall, the professional ethics construction of our country's judges is still relatively weak, and it is still far from what the people require of us. There are many problems that need to be explored and solved. This article intends to talk about some of my personal views on the relationship between the construction of judges’ professional ethics and judicial impartiality.
1. Strengthening the construction of judges’ professional ethics is the prerequisite and guarantee for realizing judicial fairness
Xiao Yang, President of the Supreme Court of my country, pointed out: “Do people’s judges have good conduct and noble moral sentiments? , This is of great significance to ensuring fair justice. "Associating judges' professional ethics with judicial fairness shows the importance of strengthening the construction of judges' professional ethics in the current process of judicial reform. The reason why this issue has been raised to such an important level is, I think, due to the interdependent and mutually prerequisite two-way effect between the construction of judges’ professional ethics and the realization of judicial justice. On the one hand, the construction of judges' professional ethics is the prerequisite and guarantee for the realization of judicial fairness; on the other hand, judicial fairness puts forward strict requirements on judges' professional ethics and behavioral ethics.
As the premise and guarantee of judicial fairness, the basic meaning of the construction of judges’ professional ethics is: strengthening the construction of judges’ professional ethics is an effective means to improve the quality of judges, and a high-quality team of judges plays a decisive role in realizing judicial fairness. effect.
1. Judges’ professional ethics themselves play a role in ensuring judicial fairness.
The word "morality" has long been used in ancient Chinese books, such as "aiming for Tao and relying on virtue" in "The Analects" and "respecting virtue and valuing Tao" in "Mencius". It's about "morality". The so-called "Tao" refers to the path that people walk, and extends to the social code of conduct, rules and norms that people must follow: "Virtue" is obtained. People understand "Tao" and follow "Tao". They gain it internally from themselves and apply it externally. People are "virtue". "Tao" is highly objective and mainly refers to external normative requirements; "De" is more subjective and mainly refers to people's inner spiritual things. Rulers of all ages, both at home and abroad, have attached great importance to the role of morality and regarded morality as a means to consolidate their power. They believe that "governing a country means governing officials." To govern officials, we must start from "virtue". Confucius said that "Government should be based on virtue", "If a person is upright, he will act without being told; if he is not upright, he will not obey orders." These ideas that value morality played a certain role in maintaining feudal rule.
Socialist morality is essentially different from the morality of the feudal ruling class, has richer connotations, and plays an important role in the construction of socialist spiritual civilization that cannot be underestimated. General Secretary Jiang pointed out: "For the governance of a country, the rule of law and the rule of morality have always been complementary and mutually reinforcing. Both are indispensable, and they cannot be neglected." In celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China At the annual meeting, General Secretary Jiang also called on the entire party to work hard to improve the ideological and moral quality and scientific and cultural quality of the entire nation and achieve the all-round development of people's ideological and spiritual life. General Secretary Jiang's important exposition of "ruling the country with morality" is an innovation and improvement of the country's governance strategy as our country enters a new historical development period, and fully affirms the value and function of morality.
Professional ethics are closely related to people's professional activities. Engels once pointed out: "In fact, each class, and even each industry, has its own morality." The morality of each industry mentioned here is professional ethics. As practitioners of a specific profession, judges should not only follow the general ethical norms that ordinary people should follow. They should also abide by the special ethics required by the judicial profession. It is these norms that reflect the most essential characteristics of the judge’s profession. Judge's professional ethics is a type of judicial professional ethics, which refers to the behavioral norms and moral qualities that persons engaged in judicial work should follow in the performance of their duties. Judges’ professional ethics not only regulate the behavior of individual judges, but also constrain and regulate the overall behavior of people’s courts. The improvement of group professional ethics is more important than the improvement of individual professional ethics. In this sense, although other court staff other than judges do not belong to the category of judges, their behaviors should be included in the judge’s professional ethics system and subject to unified management and supervision.
The particularity of the judge’s profession determines that judges’ professional ethics have stricter responsibilities, compulsions and self-discipline than general social ethics. This is because judges’ professional ethics are subordinate to political power. , all professional activities within the scope of a judge’s duties are closely connected with the operation of power. As the last line of defense in safeguarding social justice, courts are the last line of defense. When many conflicts in society cannot be resolved through the use of educational, administrative and economic means, they must ultimately be resolved by the courts. Therefore, judges bear the important responsibility of safeguarding social justice. Responsibilities, the requirements for judges’ professional ethics should be higher than those for other professional ethics.
At present, although there are many reasons for judicial injustice and judicial corruption in our country, the overall low quality and low moral cultivation of the judges are also one of the important reasons, and have become a major obstacle to fair justice. If our judges do not have the necessary moral qualities and cannot be loyal to the law, upright, honest and self-disciplined, cultivate their moral integrity, obey the law, and serve the people, it will be difficult to achieve the goal of judicial impartiality.
2. All kinds of bad professional ethics among the judges harm the image of the court and judges, and affect the realization of judicial justice.
Judicial fairness includes not only substantive fairness and procedural fairness, but also image fairness. Image justice is the external expression of judicial impartiality. This is just like when we go to the hospital for medical treatment. If we encounter a doctor who behaves and talks inappropriately, it is easy to doubt his medical skills. In fact, maybe there is nothing wrong with the doctor's medical skills, and he may even be quite good at it, but maybe it is because of his poor image that he has lost the trust of his patients. Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in the Tang Dynasty of my country, once made an incisive discussion on medical ethics. He believed that if someone comes to see a doctor, they should be treated equally regardless of "rich or poor, rich or poor, young or old, beauties, friends, Chinese, barbarians, wise or stupid". When making diagnosis and treatment, one should not be moved even though "the eyes are full of beautiful things", "the ears are filled with silk and bamboo", and "the delicacies are delivered to the patient". This is the basic medical ethics of "treating the disease and saving the patient". By the same token, a judge with a stiff tone, indifferent attitude, and loose style is unlikely to gain the respect and conviction of the parties. To solve the problems of individual judges' misbehavior and poor image, we must start from their inherent ideological and moral qualities and strengthen their roots. Judges’ professional ethics should be used to constrain and standardize judges’ official behavior.
The main manifestations of judges’ bad professional ethics are: some judges have low ideological quality, wavering ideals and beliefs, weak sense of purpose, and weak sense of professionalism and work responsibility. Lack of goals in life; some have poor moral character, do not value the honor of judges, have inappropriate speech and behavior, which affects the image of judges; some are unlearned, unmotivated, greedy for pleasure, obsessed with going to karaoke bars, playing mahjong, and even late at night No home. They are in low spirits and have no motivation at work; some are self-reliant, domineering, have a serious idea of ??privilege, and have an arrogant attitude towards the parties involved, using the judicial power in their hands as a bargaining chip to take advantage of others; some do not pay attention to their public image, Talking about specific cases in public has a bad social impact; some even violate confidentiality regulations and disclose the opinions of the collegial panel, as well as the discussion of the case by the adjudicating committee and the court’s internal approval letters to the parties, creating a passive environment for the trial of the case. ; Some collude with lawyers and parties to fabricate "facts" to confuse right and wrong, or take advantage of legal loopholes and misapply the law; some take advantage of the convenience of working in the court to act as litigation brokers and interfere with the normal work of the court; some work seriously Irresponsibility and low efficiency, cases are delayed for a long time, and the masses are dissatisfied; some have a lazy style, lax discipline, arrive late for work and leave early, "slip" in the middle, and have serious liberalism. All these have revealed that there are many problems in the construction of professional ethics among our judges, which has caused the people to have great opinions on the courts and the social credibility of the judiciary has declined, seriously affecting the realization of judicial fairness.
3. Judges lack professional ethics and lack strict self-discipline, which can easily become a breeding ground for judicial corruption.
Some problems of unfair and dishonest handling of cases in the court team, and even judicial corruption problems of individual personnel, are often caused by their low moral standards and their failure to pay attention to their own behavior, which gradually develop and evolve. result. Some cases that cause strong public dissatisfaction are often caused by judges' poor professional ethics. On the surface, moral issues don't seem to be a big problem. Criticism and education are enough. It is also easy to be negligent and paralyzed in the internal management of the court. However, some problems often arise in "small details", from quantitative changes to qualitative changes. The armpit becomes a fur, which leads to a big mistake. Judging from the cases of police officers violating laws and disciplines in the court system in recent years, most of them have flaws in their professional ethics. It is precisely these flaws that are not easily noticed by others that provide the soil for corruption. If it can be discovered in time, given serious education, and quickly corrected, it can still be saved. Therefore, we must pay enough attention to the construction of judges' professional ethics, start from the bad phenomena, start from the small, prevent the slightest, and completely eradicate the soil of corruption.
2. Judicial impartiality puts forward strict requirements for the professional ethics of judges
Justice is the core and ultimate goal of justice. The trial work, team building and court reform of the People's Court must focus on with this core goal in mind. Therefore, the construction of judges' professional ethics should be regarded as an important part of the construction of the court team so that it can meet the requirements of the overall goal of judicial impartiality. Fundamentally speaking, a judge's professional ethics is determined by the judge's professional mission, and the judge's professional mission is to fully safeguard judicial impartiality. The above-mentioned "Guidelines" promulgated by the Supreme Court put forward strict and clear standards for the professional ethics of judges from six aspects: ensuring judicial fairness, improving judicial efficiency, maintaining integrity, observing judicial etiquette, strengthening self-cultivation, and restricting outside activities. Requirements constitute the core content of the professional ethics of judges in our country. The independence and impartiality of judges are the most basic and core requirements for the normal functioning of judicial functions.
Without independence and impartiality, the judge's profession will lose the value of its existence; the requirement of integrity enables judges to eliminate the influence of improper interests on fair administration of justice; observing judicial etiquette is the basic routine of judges' professional activities, which is conducive to maintaining judicial dignity and embodying justice. The civilized and credible activities also create the conditions and environment for parties to fully exercise their litigation rights; strengthening the quality of judges themselves is an eternal professional ethical obligation of judges; and restricting judges’ activities outside of their duties is important for establishing the image of judicial impartiality and maintaining the image of judicial impartiality. Judicial dignity is also very important.
The "Code" also regulates judges' official and non-official words, deeds, and activities, which mainly include:
1. In terms of judicial impartiality, judges, in addition to In addition to abiding by the judge's recusal system, if you think that your trial of a case may cause the public to have reasonable doubts about the fair judgment of the case, you should make a request that it is not appropriate to hear the case; you are not allowed to meet one party and his agent privately during trial activities; Show any discrimination in their words and actions; subjective bias, abuse of power and disregard of the law should be avoided to ensure judicial justice. In addition, in order to ensure trial independence, judges should respect the independent exercise of trial powers by other judges. Unless based on the performance of trial duties and through appropriate procedures, they are not allowed to make personal suggestions and opinions on second-instance cases to the higher people's court; they are not allowed to inquire about other judges' handling of cases. trial status and relevant information; avoid being unduly influenced by public opinion.
2. In terms of judicial efficiency, judges should perform their duties wholeheartedly, strictly abide by the litigation deadlines stipulated by law, arrange and manage court trials scientifically, reasonably and effectively, and shorten the litigation cycle as much as possible. Judges shall not affect the normal performance of their duties due to personal matters, schedules or other actions; they shall pay attention to saving the time of the parties involved.
3. In terms of strict self-discipline, judges have the obligation to resist improper interests and have an honest attitude, and shall not directly or indirectly use their positions and status to seek any improper interests. This includes not accepting entertainment, property and other benefits from parties and their litigation agents and defenders, not intentionally disclosing a judge's identity in order to obtain special favors, and not using a judge's status to obtain improper benefits. In addition, judges should truthfully declare their property, and the lifestyle and standards of judges and their family members should be consistent with their positions and incomes.
4. In terms of regulating the activities of judges other than their judicial duties, judges should be cautious in entering and leaving social situations, be careful in making friends, and should not engage in inappropriate social activities, and should not disclose or use the information obtained in their capacity as judges. They must not participate in for-profit social organizations; after retirement, judges should continue to maintain their good image and avoid improper words and deeds that may cause the public to have reasonable doubts about judicial impartiality. The above provisions, boiled down to one point, are all required by judicial fairness and reflect the expectations and requirements of the party and the people, the country and society for judges.
3. Strengthen the professional ethics education of judges and build a team of judges with fair justice
The key to the construction of the court team is to improve the quality of judges, and strengthening the professional ethics education of judges is to improve the quality of judges. effective means of quality. The construction of judges' professional ethics is a long-term strategic task of the People's Court. The focus of the construction should be on the professional ethics education of judges, so that every judge knows what behavioral ethics must be observed and what unethical behaviors must be resolutely prevented and avoided. Behavior. The task of judges’ professional ethics education is to transmit socialist judicial ethics principles, norms and categories to judges, and to lay a solid ideological foundation for the cultivation and improvement of judges’ moral character. Good moral character is not innate, nor is it formed spontaneously. It is "morality due to teaching" and is gradually formed through education. It is necessary to transform judges' responsibilities to the organization into personal inner beliefs through professional ethics education for judges, and enhance the ability of self-discipline and self-improvement. Even in places where laws and regulations cannot govern, you can still make correct choices about your behavior and be "cautious about being alone." You can also consciously abide by moral principles and practice self-control even when you are alone, unsupervised, and uninformed. Control and supervision.
The approaches and methods of judges’ professional ethics education mainly include five aspects: improving judges’ moral awareness, establishing judges’ moral beliefs, cultivating judges’ moral emotions, exercising judges’ moral will, and developing judges’ moral habits.
1. Improving moral awareness is the premise and foundation of judges’ moral education. Guided by scientific theories, we should systematically teach and instill in judges the social ethics and judges' moral concepts required by the state, so that they can deeply understand and understand the content and significance of the principles, norms and categories of social ethics and judges' ethics, and consciously standardize their words and deeds in their duties. Moral understanding is the forerunner of moral quality. Without correct and noble moral understanding, there will be no noble moral behavior, and it is impossible to form noble moral character. Moral understanding is also called moral consciousness, or moral sense. As a judge, it is his bounden duty to think about issues from a legal perspective, but he must also learn to check his words and deeds from a moral and conscience perspective, and constantly enhance his sense of morality. In this way, you can constantly correct your behavior and maintain good moral conduct.
2. Cultivation of judges’ moral emotions is a necessary part of judges’ moral education. The so-called judge's moral emotions are the feelings of likes, dislikes, love and hate that people have when dealing with judges' moral relationships and evaluating judges' moral behaviors based on certain judges' moral concepts.
The judge's moral emotion is an inner spiritual force that affects people's acceptance or rejection of certain thoughts, concepts, and behaviors. Cultivation of judges' moral emotions means turning abstract, external judges' moral knowledge into personal inner psychological requirements. This is a necessary factor for establishing moral beliefs and forming moral character.
3. Training judges’ moral will is an important guarantee for judges’ moral education. Moral will refers to a person's perseverance and ability to overcome difficulties and eliminate interference when adhering to moral principles and improving moral cultivation. When performing the moral obligations of judges, they sometimes encounter resistance and interference from all aspects, such as criticism from public opinion, blame from relatives and friends, entanglement by parties, obstruction by evil forces, suppression by administrative power, etc. In the face of such situations, the will People who are not determined will waver, compromise, give in, and give up their responsibilities; while people with a strong will can firmly fulfill their moral responsibilities. Whether a person's will can stand the test is one of the important signs of his moral level.
4. Establishing the judge’s moral beliefs is the core of the judge’s moral education. Judges’ moral beliefs refer to the clarity of moral understanding, the consciousness of moral obligations, and the firmness in the pursuit of moral ideals that judges are willing to perform, persevere, and move forward in judicial practice activities. A judge's moral belief is based on a certain outlook on life and the world, and through the cultivation of moral emotions and the training of moral will, it deepens and sublimates existing morality and internalizes it into an individual's inner and unswerving moral pursuit.
5. Developing judges’ moral habits is one of the main purposes of judges’ moral education. Moral habits are the natural expression and expression of a person's inner moral requirements. It is an important criterion for measuring a person's moral level and moral quality. Good moral habits are formed through long-term theoretical study and practice. They are developed consciously, through volitional efforts and supervision, until they enter the habit of "having become a natural habit" and "doing what one wants and not exceeding the limit." realm.
The above five aspects are interconnected and complementary to each other. The judge's moral understanding is the starting point, the judge's moral emotions are the psychological foundation, the judge's moral will is the spiritual guarantee, the judge's moral belief is the motivation and source, and the judge's moral habits are the external manifestations. Together, they create the judge's moral character. The process of building judges’ professional ethics is the process of internalizing judges’ moral qualities. Only by “moralizing themselves, their duties, and society” can judges fundamentally maintain judicial fairness.
It should be admitted that although we have professional ethics standards for judges that can be followed and we have mastered the ways and methods to educate judges on professional ethics, due to the current legal construction in our country is not perfect enough, the overall performance of judges The quality of judges is not high, and the task of building judges’ professional ethics is still very arduous. We must regard the construction of judges' professional ethics as a long-term strategic task, pursue it unremittingly, and gradually establish and improve the implementation mechanism for the construction of judges' professional ethics. Start by focusing on ideological and political work, understand the ideological trends of judges, and carry out targeted work. This should be supplemented by an effective professional self-discipline mechanism, and necessary rules and regulations should be formulated based on actual needs to restrict and standardize the behavior of judges, such as the disciplinary measures for judges stipulated in the "Judges Law". On this basis, the construction of judges’ professional ethics should also highlight key points. The connotation of the construction of judges' professional ethics is very rich. Only by grasping the key points can we drive the overall situation and get twice the result with half the effort. I believe that cultivating judges’ professionalism and sense of responsibility should be given top priority, as it is the basic condition for the realization of judicial duties. As a judge, whether you are responsible, whether you have professional beliefs and a sense of professional mission, and whether you devote all your energy to your work will directly affect the realization of the rights of the parties, the image of the judge, and the credibility and life of the judge's profession. , ultimately affecting the realization of fair justice. Only by continuously enhancing the sense of responsibility and mission, being pioneering and innovative, loyal to their duties and working diligently can judges ensure the normal performance of judicial duties. With the continuous improvement of the professional ethics of judges in our country, the professional ethics level of judges in our country will continue to improve. A team of judges with high professional ethics and high quality will play their due role in the process of governing the country according to law and building a socialist legal country. important role.