“Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.” - Louis Brandeis

In a democracy, nobody is above the law, and everyone should be accountable for their actions. Unfortunately, this is not the case with judges, who play by their own rules rather than by binding laws regulating their conduct. To make things worse, the doctrine of judicial immunity further insulates them from the ill effects of their malicious decisions, even when they can be established in a court of law.

Judges are no better than people who choose other professions. The latest scientific research demonstrates that not only do they suffer from all the cognitive biases and mental heuristics-related distortions of judgment that everybody else does, but they are also particularly prone to overconfidence bias, which makes them believe that their qualifications and training can overcome the effects of anatomy and psychology that fundamentally define humans.

It’s also worth emphasising that there are honest criminals, and then there are fraudulent public fiduciaries who misuse public resources to exploit people and abuse their statutory authority to evade accountability. Various conceptual frameworks from behavioural economics and cognitive psychology, along with a wealth of empirical data on the subject, show that corrupt public officials struggle to survive without corrupt judges who use misleading legal technicalities and their social status to vilify victims and ingratiate themselves with those in power—it’s hard to imagine worse scoundrels! Judges of this sort are a blight on society and a scourge on honest judges everywhere. They bring the administration of justice into disrepute and erode public confidence in the judiciary.

While the challenges associated with the abuse of judicial discretion are complex and multifaceted, a binding code of judicial ethics is an indispensable step in the right direction. In 2021, the Australian Law Review Commission proposed this step after extensive research and analysis. Similar measures are currently being considered worldwide, most prominently in the USA, where the abuse of judicial discretion has uprooted people’s lives and infringed rights hitherto regarded as inalienable.

In light of all the matters mentioned above, we urge the federal and state parliaments to adopt a set of binding laws that regulate judges' conduct and protect litigants from foreseeable circumstances in which corrupt judges may inflict irreparable and serious harm, not only to their interests but also to public confidence in the justice system.

Furthermore, until the respective parliaments enact such laws, we urge the Chief Judicial Officers of the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Courts of the various states and territories to implement regulations that serve the same purpose. No reasonable person can oppose this measure.