A thread on judicial misconduct (in the current context): The Judicial Council Act 2019 set up, for the first time in Ireland, a system for complaints of judicial misconduct. This has not been commenced yet as guidelines on judicial conduct and ethics must first be drawn up ..1/5

These are due to be published in 12 months. It is unclear whether or not the guidelines will define ‘misconduct’. Under the Act, complaints can be made to the JCC by a person affected or who witnessed the conduct. But the conduct must constitute misconduct ... 2/5

But how do we decide what constitutes misconduct?
The Act also states that the function of the JCC is to ‘promote and maintain high standards of conduct among judges …[including] integrity, propriety(including the appearance of propriety), competence and diligence …’ 3/5

However, absent a definition or something close to one, it will always be open to an accused judge to argue that the behaviour complained of does not constitute ‘misconduct’ within the meaning of the Act. For example, is it only intended to cover behaviour on the Bench? 4/5

I think this episode demonstrates the importance of having some form of definition for ‘misconduct’ before the complaints procedures are commenced. The new system is supposed to ensure accountability and confidence - it must be set up properly from the beginning to do this. 5/5