Introdaction

The ultimate task of a judge is to settle a legal dispute in a final and publicly lawful manner in agreement with substantial partialities. Judges exercise significant governmental power. They can order police, military, or judicial officials to carry out searches, arrests, imprisonments, garnishments, detentions, seizures, deportations, and similar actions. However, judges also supervise trial procedures to ensure consistency and impartiality and to prevent arbitrariness. A judge’s powers are checked by higher courts, such as courts of appeal and supreme courts.

Requirements and appointment

There are both volunteer and professional judges. A volunteer judge, such as an English magistrate, is not required to have legal training and is unpaid.^[1] Whereas, a professional judge is required to be legally educated; in the U.S., this generally requires a degree of Juris Doctor. Furthermore, significant professional experience is often required; for example, in the U.S., judges are often appointed from experienced attorneys. Judges are often appointed by the head of state. However in some jurisdictions, judges are elected in a political election.^[2]

Impartiality is often considered important for rule of law. Thus, in many jurisdictions judges may be appointed for life, so that they cannot be removed by the executive. However, in non-democratic systems, the appointment of judges may be highly politicized and they often receive instructions on how to judge, and may be removed if their conduct does not please the political leadership.

Gender effects

In many civil law countries in Europe the majority of judges are women: in 6 countries (Slovenia, Serbia, Latvia, Luxembourg, Greece and Hungary) women make more than 70% of judges of the first instance. In contrast, in common law countries (UK, Ireland, Malta and the United States) the situation is reverse: over 70% of judges of the first instance are men.^[5]

On the other hand, women are underrepresented in the supreme courts of the United States and European Union member-states, except for in Romania, where over 80% of the judges of the High Court of Cassation and Justice are women.^[5]