ADHERENCE AND IMPLEMENTATION OF JUDICIAL ETHICS NORMS BY JUDGES WHILE ADMINISTERING PUBLIC JUSTICE

Abstract

The author of the article has proved that a judge as a holder of judicial power must represent an example of strict adherence to the rule of law principle and to the requirements of the law, to a judge’s oath. A judge must be aware of the constant attention of society and must demonstrate high standards of moral behavior in order to strengthen the trust in the judicial power and to establish the authority of public justice.The author has supported the position that court ethics and judicial ethics are interrelated and interdependent concepts, where court ethics is a broader concept compared to judicial ethics, since all participants in the judicial process should adhere certain ethical rules, and judicial ethics requires certain behavior from a judge as a holder of judicial power.It has been substantiated that the application of disciplinary responsibility should not be universal consequence of violating the rules of judicial ethics defined by the Code of Judicial Ethics. Disciplinary offences, which are the basis for bringing a judge to disciplinary responsibility may be exclusively determined by the laws of Ukraine. It has been argued that the Code of Judicial Ethics is an internal act of the judicial power and its provisions are generally binding for all judicial self-government bodies and all judges of Ukraine. The provisions of the Code of Judicial Ethics are not enactments, and the Code of Judicial Ethics itself does not belong to a regulatory legal act within the meaning of the Law of Ukraine “On Law-Making Activity”.The Code of Judicial Ethics as the judicial power’s act should be applied subsidiary when resolving issues of holding judges to disciplinary responsibility for a judge’s behavior that discrediting the judgeship or undermining the authority of public justice, in particular in matters of ethics, honesty, incorruptibility, compliance of a judge’s lifestyle with his / her status, compliance with other norms of judicial ethics and standards of conduct ensuring public trust in the court.