Building your own judicial education pathway!

The purpose of judicial education is to promote competency in carrying out the judicial role and support the development and maintenance of a judicial officer’s ethical identity. Both these aspects are integral to maintaining public confidence and trust in the judiciary. As crystallised in a statement by the former Chief Justice of Australia, the Honourable Murray Gleeson AC QC, “the general acceptance of judicial decisions, by citizens and by governments, which is essential for peace, welfare and good government of the community, rests, not upon coercion, but upon public confidence.” 

Judicial education strengthens judicial authority and legitimacy, and in turn, public confidence in the Australian judicial officer individually, and in the judiciary as a collective. It is now widely accepted that judicial officers are life-long learners.

To this end, the National Judicial College of Australia has recently further developed a suggested judicial education pathway for judges, magistrates and tribunal members, highlighting key courses that it suggests judicial officers might attend at specific stages of their judicial career.

We also support Recommendation 9 of the ALRC Report: Without Fear or Favour: Judicial Impartiality and the Law on Bias and the coordination with courts and tribunals on the development of any court-specific professional development pathways pursuant to Recommendation 9, recognising that core competencies may differ depending on the judge’s role and any areas of specialisation.

Our website therefore also has the functionality for judges, magistrates and tribunal members to build individual judicial education pathways using our website.

See this page for more information – https://www.njca.com.au/judicial-education-pathway/

Footnotes