Justice and Ethical Dilemmas (Essay Sample)

Justice and Ethical Dilemmas Name: Course: Instructor: Institution: Date of Submission: Justice and Ethical Dilemmas To be fair enough, most of these activities are unethical, especially for magistrate. A judicial officer like a magistrate is supposed to remain impartial and objective in his/her rulings. However, this cannot happen when the magistrate has interactions that can compromise their ability to interpret the law fairly. To begin with, there is nothing unethical about borrowing money from court employees. After all, people in other career may borrow money from their colleagues. However, this is as best as it gets, because there are pitfalls of this behavior. In human interactions, nothing is ever offered for free – at least not in the long term. Therefore, the habit of borrowing money from court employees is one which could compromise the magistrate in future. Supposing for some reason, the magistrate would not pay back in time and the lender requested for a favor? What would happen if the favor was that the magistrate gives a “favorable” ruling in case involving a relative of the lender? He would definitely find it hard to resist the pressure. There are dangers of magistrates expressing their preferences openly. Endorsing and publicly campaigning for a candidate ought to be the work of politicians, not magistrates. It must be remembered that the bar for what is right and wrong is even higher for employees of the judiciary like magistrates. Therefore, while this act may be harmless and perhaps even with good intentions, it tarnishes the reputation of the magistrate in the eyes of the pubic, thus in effect lowering the belief that the magistrate has the ability to perceive matters with clarity and objectivity (Pollock, 2016). This is not right and weakens justice. However, while it may be illegal, it is not totally unethical – just that a magistrate who values their career would not engage in such acts. Court chambers are not meant for personal business. They are strictly for handling public matters as regards interpreting the law and issuing rulings. It is therefore unethical and unbecoming for the magistrate to conduct personal business while in the court chambers, because this amounts to demeaning the courts as places of justice. Justice, and the houses of justice, ought not to be given a bad name by those who conduct personal business in them, like the magistrate. Directing other court employees to run errands for him during court hours is unethical for several reasons. First, such people are employees of the court, not servants for the magistrate. Secondly, by running errands, such employees will not be available to do the duties that they are employed to do by the courts. Making use of the resources of the court for personal use is not only illegal, but unethical too, especially so for the magistrate who ought to be putting people behind bars for misusing their authority and abusing their offices (Heffernan, 2014). Shutting court down early to prevent defendant from filing pleadings in an ongoing case is not only unethical, but borders on illegality too. Being an employee of the court, the magistrate is required to remain in the court for the stated number of hours. Under any circumstances, the magistrate must not be allowed to leave the premises of the court early – or close the court altogether – so as not to attend to those seeking justice. For whatever reasons, the magistrate should not endeavor to influence the outcome of a case. Their only duty is to interpret the law and give fair rulings, nothing more or less. Preventing a defendant from filing pleadings to an ongoing case amounts to directly interfering with the intention of defeating justice. This is highly unethical. Taking kickbacks from private juvenile detention facilities so as to lock more juveniles up on questionable charges is unethical too. As is required by the law, one must only be locked up if the charges against them are proved beyond any reasonable doubt (Braswell, McCarthy, & McCarthy, 2014). Taking kickbacks to guarantee business for private juvenile detentions is not only unethical, but is bad business for the magistrate, one which tarnishes the image of the court as the temple of justice. Banning one of the defense attorneys from speaking during a trial is a gross violation of ethics. How will the attorney defend their client of they are not even allowed to speak in the court at all. While the client will still be free to seek the council of another attorney, it takes time to familiarize oneself with a case. The magistrate will therefore be engaging in underhand maneuvers with the intention of defeating justice – or at the very least obstructing it – by banning the defense attorney. Jailing an entire courtroom simply because a cellphone went off and no one stood up to take responsibility is simply unethical. While indeed an offence may have been committed, mass punishment should never be the business of the court. That is not how the law and justice work. It is better for the guilty to walk free than for the innocent to suffer unfair punishment. That would be unethical. Offering suggestions to people appearing before him that they contribute to charity instead of paying fines is unethical too. While contributing to charity is good, it cannot be done through money meant for payment of fines. Fines are meant to punish individuals for their wrong d...