Judges speed up drafting of new conduct rules in wake of ‘Golfgate’
JUDGES have agreed to speed up the drafting of new rules on judicial conduct, the Judicial Council has announced.
The decision was made prior to the ‘Golfgate’ controversy, but a statement on its website said recent events had provided “an additional impetus”.
The fallout from Supreme Court judge Séamus Woulfe’s attendance at the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner in August highlighted the urgent need for defined rules and a process for dealing with judicial conduct issues.
Lacking any formal process to deal with the matter, the Supreme Court asked former chief justice Susan Denham to conduct a non-statutory review.
Although she concluded he failed to reflect upon whether his attendance at a celebratory dinner in the middle of a pandemic might cause controversy and bring the court into disrepute, she found he had not broken any law and it would be “unjust and disproportionate” for him to have to resign.
Ms Justice Denham suggested Chief Justice Frank Clarke deal with the matter by way of “informal resolution” and recommended a code of conduct be introduced as a matter of urgency.
Under the Judicial Council Act brought in last year, a council committee has until June of next year to submit guidelines on the admissibility of complaints, the informal resolution of complaints, and codes for conduct and ethics.
The council would then have a further year to adopt and publish the guidelines, mean
ing it could potentially be June 2022 before they are in place.
However, according to a statement on the council’s website, the committee decided at a meeting on July 27 to be “much more ambitious in completing this work than the statutory timeframes provided for”.
At a subsequent meeting on September 29, six weeks after the ‘Golfgate’ controversy erupted, it was decided work on the guidelines would begin within a fortnight.
“While recent additional public interest in judicial standards provides an additional impetus to the committee, the committee had already decided at the July meeting to deliver the earliest possible results,” the statement noted.
It is expected there will be a further announcement on an indicative timeframe for the completion of the new guidelines.
The act provides for the referral of a complaint to a panel of inquiry or, as Ms Justice Denham recommended in Mr Justice Woulfe’s case, a resolution by “informal means”.
Just what this will amount to is, as yet, unclear. It has been speculated in legal circles that he may face a warning or admonishment, or be asked to issue a further public apology.
Under the template set out in the act, he would have to consent to whatever would be involved.
A scheduled meeting between Mr Justice Clarke and Mr Justice Woulfe to bring the process forward has been postponed twice.
They are now due to meet next Tuesday.