THE JUDICIAL IMPARTIALITY BETWEEN LAW AND ETHICS IN SOUTH AFRICA

In this paper the author(s) aimed to examine, Interrogate the transparency, fairness and impartiality of judicial officers from legal and ethical point of view which raises some obvious methodological issues of judicial impartiality which is not only an ethical principle, it is also a legal principle with its own specific rules in each legal system and judiciary function according to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa1. What is the point of ethical requirements formulated in quite generic codes if there are already specific legal rules regulating impartiality in each legal system? Moreover, can we extract from these ethical codes rules for the daily practice of the judicial function that are not laid down in the legal systems. Besides these there are other significant issues of paramount importance. Ethical code of conduct is culturally conditioned to specific type of people with degree of position which are expressed by particular type of people with requisite skill, knowledge and codes, which are the expression of minimum agreements adopted between magistrates,judges and the organisations of various judicial office and as a consequence they are formulated in quite abstract and general terms and conditions. Any attempt to analyse the case-law or to detail the mandates relating to the principle of impartiality would offer us the image of ethical neutrality and legal impartiality, not the image of partiality.