Ethics in the Courts
The Delaware Judiciary (n.d.) describes one of their core visions as to
“insure equal application of the judicial process to all cases, which
are fairly decided based upon legally relevant factors.” This equal
application and fair decision must be rooted in an ethical foundation.
“Because an understanding of judicial ethics is part and parcel of a
true appreciation for the core values of the judiciary-judicial
independence, integrity, and impartiality-this cannot be an optional
project” (Rosenblum, 2007, p. 403). Several standards of conduct exist
that relates to ethics in the courtroom, including the Model Code of
Judicial Conduct, the Code of Conduct for Federal Judges, and the Ethics
Reform Act of 1989. Judges, who preside over a court, and attorneys, who
battle each other in court, are both held to high ethical standards.
Judges are sworn to administer justice within their courtroom. Judges
swear to do this without respect to the people involved but with respect
to the Constitution and the laws of the United States (Legal Information
Institute, n.d.). This would imply that a judge should not import their
emotions, opinions, convictions, or biases into their courtroom
decisions. However, this is not the case as judges are human like the
rest of us. Ethical behavior by a judge would eliminate favoritism,
bias, and impropriety, and carry over into their personal conduct.
Appleby & Blackham (2018) assert that there is a current trend toward
the “transparent ethical regulation for serving judges” which is said
to “promote public confidence in the judicial institution” (p. 506).
These ethical codes are independent and do not - can not - eliminate a
judge’s personality or emotions to bleed over into their decision
making. This is another case of relative ethics, in which there is no
specific line between ethical and unethical actions.
Attorneys, both on the prosecution and defense side of the courtroom,
are also faced with challenges of ethics. Attorneys “must be legally
and morally bound to ethical principles as agents of the courts” (Peak,
2012, p. 288). Attorneys are ethically bound to put justice over
winning, which unfortunately is rarely the case in today’s court
proceedings. Ethical principles also prohibit misconduct such as
deception or lying, bribery, concealment of evidence, among other
things.