JAS and Judicial Ethics

About us19.10.2011.

 JAS introduced into society, especially in judiciary, justice ethical issues, by adopting its first Canon of Ethics in 1998 as a short summary of 10 moral values and categories. It was accepted by JAS Managing Board and not by all its members who, in those days represented ¼ of judges’ corpus (600 members). In 2003 JAS adopted the Standards of Ethical Rules, after distributing the proposal among all its members (which number increased up till 1.700 judges – more than 2/3 of judges). Though adopted by JAS members, the idea was that the foreseen ethical rules become the ethical imperative of all judges.

There are six main ethical canons: independence, impartiality, professionalism, integrity, commitment to judicial vocations, and commitment to the ethical cannons. The canons are explained by several principles which can/are be illustrated with specific examples /decisions of the JAS Ethical Committee, which are published. After adopting the Standard of Ethical Rules, instead of its Court of Ethics, which was established by the first Statute of JAS from 1997 and was not functional, JAS established a new body - Ethical Committee whose task is to give its opinion on compliance of the judicial behavior with Standards to Ethical Rules and on the application of acquis on judicial conduct. Due to the judicial turbulence connected with judicial reforms, JAS Ethical Committee is not operational since 2009.