Book contents
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Natural Law and the Origins of Human Rights
- Part II Natural Law Foundations of Human Rights Obligations
- Part III Natural Law and Human Rights within Religious Traditions
- Part IV The Human Person, Political Community, and Rule of Law
- Part V Rival Interpretations and Interpretive Principles
- 24 Moral Pluralism, Political Disagreement, and Human Rights
- 25 Human Rights Law and Adjudication
- 26 Natural Law and Human Rights amid the Legal Ruins of Liberal Scepticism, Values Language, and Global Resets
- 27 Human Rights and the Modes of Judicial Responsibility
- 28 The Right to Religious Freedom
- 29 Natural Law, Rights of the Family, and International Human Rights Instruments
- 30 Natural Law and Socioeconomic Rights
- 31 Solidarity and Global Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccines
- Part VI Challenges and Future Prospects
- Index
27 - Human Rights and the Modes of Judicial Responsibility
from Part V - Rival Interpretations and Interpretive Principles
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2022
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I Natural Law and the Origins of Human Rights
- Part II Natural Law Foundations of Human Rights Obligations
- Part III Natural Law and Human Rights within Religious Traditions
- Part IV The Human Person, Political Community, and Rule of Law
- Part V Rival Interpretations and Interpretive Principles
- 24 Moral Pluralism, Political Disagreement, and Human Rights
- 25 Human Rights Law and Adjudication
- 26 Natural Law and Human Rights amid the Legal Ruins of Liberal Scepticism, Values Language, and Global Resets
- 27 Human Rights and the Modes of Judicial Responsibility
- 28 The Right to Religious Freedom
- 29 Natural Law, Rights of the Family, and International Human Rights Instruments
- 30 Natural Law and Socioeconomic Rights
- 31 Solidarity and Global Allocation of COVID-19 Vaccines
- Part VI Challenges and Future Prospects
- Index
Summary
This chapter makes the case for judicial morality as a safeguard against result-selective reasoning, a decision-making flaw especially pernicious in human rights adjudication. Human rights claims are more value-laden than other judicial work. They can tempt judges to depart from disciplined judging according to the rule of law. One purpose of the rule of law is to constrain discretionary judicial power. Research into the psychology of judging supports the need for constraints. But the legal system affords opportunities – margins of judicial manoeuvre – to engage in result-selective reasoning, from the indeterminacy of human rights texts, the replacement of rules with standards, and the adoption of proportionality analysis. The rule of law’s constraints are not self-enforcing and cannot safeguard against the failure of judges to abide by them. What is required is commitment to judicial morality comprising the modes of judicial responsibility: do no harm, and then, do the right thing, for the right reason, in the right way, at the right time, and in the right words. When judges neglect these moral imperatives, they undermine the quest for consistent adjudication that underpins justice.
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- The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights , pp. 402 - 417Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022