As per Achkaerin's suggestion, due to the length of this bill, debate will be split into several threads. The entire bill shall be up for debate until at least 6/12/14.
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Article Four Judges
(23) Judges are appointed to the Judiciary by the Premier with the approval of the Senate (this section and total article five not yet in force- pending constitutional amendment).
(24) Any User with a previous conviction for a High crime or Felony as defined under the Criminal Code of the Independent Order is disqualified from serving as a judge (unless sentence is commuted).
(25) Any User with previous convictions defined as Misdemeanours under the Criminal Code of the Independent Order is disqualified from serving as a judge if the previous conviction is less than three (3) months old.
(26) During hearings the role of the judge shall be as follows:- i. to keep order in the court ii. to guide prosecution and defence counsel as to procedure and protocol. iii. to reassure and inform witnesses when required iv. to ensure the hearings proceeds at a reasonable pace (it is assumed that as this is a message board that we would need to have a time restraint on each part of the case to be negotiated between judge, prosecution and defence in advance e.g 3 days for prosecution and defence to each present their case) v. where there is disputed evidence to rule on the admissibility or inadmissibility of such evidence vi. at the beginning of each hearing the judge should remind those present what the prosecution MUST prove for a guilty verdict (Intended to help all concerned in terms of case building and in the case of the judge reaching a verdict. Should happen at minimum during pre-trial to ease appeal process) vii. When required to give rulings (e.g evidence, objections raised) the judge must give detailed reasons for the decision, which may be revealed at the end of the trial if queried. In the case of the judgement the full judgement with reasons should be posted in a single post. The reasoning again is to help the appeals panel see what the judge was thinking. viii. After the final hearing of a case the Judge is required to publish any posts that guided his/her decision ix. the decisions of the Judge in the judgement must be based on the evidence presented otherwise there is an automatic ground for appeal. x. After the hearing the clerk is responsible for updating the precedent archive unless there is no clerk available in which case the judge is ultimately responsible.
(27) In the course of a hearing the Judge: i. MAY ask questions of the prosecution and defence counsel for clarification and procedural purposes only (unless either one is vacant or represented by litigant in person. In which case for the purposes of justice the judge may take on a more inquisitorial role) ii. MAY adjourn a case to a later date at the request of either counsel with the consent of another, or with the consent of both counsels if there is a reason why the Judge cannot be present. iii. MAY dismiss a case if no progress is made within a reasonable time frame (in accordance with point iv of section 26 above) iv. MAY charge counsel or a witness with contempt of court if the criteria of the Independent Order Criminal Code is met. v. MAY request discussions with counsel (to be done via PM and in a stated period during an adjournment) vi. MAY NOT discuss the details of the case with anyone except counsel and other judges. In the case of counsel only with both counsel present (see 27 v above)
(28) A Judge is expected to recuse (remove himself) from a case if there is a conflict of interest or other such serious reason that would affect his/her ability to judge the case before them fairly.
(29) During hearings a Judge may need to interpret wording within pieces of legislation the Judge is permitted to do any of the following: i. In order to remedy the situation at hand the Judge may use the mischief rule to interpret the intended will of the Senate (The judge may look at the legislation itself. The debate regarding the legislation or any notes attached to the legislation to infer the intended meaning of the legislation) ii. In order to avoid an absurd result the Judge may consider using the Golden Rule to depart from a word's normal or most frequent meaning. iii. If all else fails, the Judge should grab the Oxford World English dictionary and look up the meaning of the word in what is known as the literal rule.
Edited by Elpidia, 9th June 2014 - 09:43 PM.
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