LAWS 670 - Judges and the Rule of Law

This seminar will compare the nature and role of judges throughout the world in supporting and protecting the Rule of Law, focusing on judicial ethics and independence and investigating the influence of various methods of selecting judges and holding them accountable. It will cover the American Bar Association Model Code of Judicial Conduct, judicial disciplinary procedures, various methods used throughout the United States to select judges and to review judicial performance, as well as constitutional and policy issues arising from the tension between judicial in- dependence and the roles of the executive and legislative branches of government and the electorate in the process of selecting judges and in extending their tenure. Additional insights will be sought from the way these issues are dealt with in other countries, correlating those insights with the Rule of Law Index.