On the Relationship between Judicial Empathy and the Integrity of Judges

Mateusz Stępień

doi:10.7206/kp.2080-1084.474

Abstract

This paper dwells on the relationship between judicial empathy and integrity. It claims that for the emergence and proper functioning of judicial empathy as a kind of judicial virtue, a number of conditions needed to be fulfilled, including the development of judicial integrity. The paper aims to unpack this argument and to demonstrate judicial empathy and integrity in action as exemplified particularly by judicial behaviour observed during empirical research in Cracow lower courts. The overall perspective for examining the relationship between judicial empathy and integrity rests on the developmental vision of a judge. Although the presented research fits into the broader interest in judicial empathy and judicial virtues, the paper contains concrete examples of verbal and non-verbal behaviours of a judge that demonstrate how judicial empathy co-functions with other skills and virtues. In general, the paper opposes the marginalisation of judicial skills and virtues.

Highlights

This essay aims at problematising the role of a judge’s integrity from a judicial empathy angle
The overall perspective for examining the relationship between judicial empathy and integrity rests on the developmental vision of a judge
To some extent, the presented approach to judicial empathy and the integrity of judges is inspired by the vision of the ontology of the social world developed by Tim Ingold, which placed the ‘enskillment’ process at the heart.[6]

Summary

Introduction

This essay aims at problematising the role of a judge’s integrity from a judicial empathy angle. Elements that constitute the desirable model of judicial decision-making These advocates have not considered what judicial empathy, as something specific, is or should be, as they were focusing on the use of empathy as a domain-general ability by judges when performing their tasks. Understood as a desired property of a person, has been on the radar of philosophy, ethics, and psychology and various specific disciplines (such as the philosophy of law and legal ethics) This issue is multifaceted and complex, as it touches upon many contexts and themes: the morality of the individual, the relationship between the individual and the role she or he performs, and the interactions between those two contexts and the pressure from current politics on the individual. It can be understood as a constant state of being authentic

12 Compare the different approaches of personal integrity

Conclusions