date

1823 Feb. 16 J.B.'s Articles and Reasons
1823 Feb. 16

J.B.'s Articles and Reasons

Judiciary

For the exercise of it a determinate day of the year ought to be fixt: and it ought to be the same day as that on which the suffrages for the Election of Members are delivered.

Reason. If a particular day was not fixt by law for the exercise of this function, the exercise of it would then depend upon the exertion of some particular individual or individuals. But by any such exertion a man would expose himself to the ill will in the first place of the Judge in the next place of all persons to whom his continuance in the situation was particularly acceptable then in case of any injustice committed by him in favour of particular individuals, to the particular resentment of all unjustly /unduly/ favoured individuals.

Reason why on the same day rather than on any other

1. Saving the time of the Electors

2. Securing for these functions the fullest attendance possible.

To the Minister of Justice ought moreover[?] to appertain the power of placing in any other district a Judge displaced out of any district as above by the Electors

To the Minister of Justice should moreover[?] appertain the power of displacing altogether any Judicial functionary not displaced by the Electors of his district.

Reason 1. Otherwise he would not be in a sufficient degree responsible for the due discharge of this his function: the security of the appropriate aptitude of these subordinate functionaries would not be so [...?] as it is capable of being.
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  • Title: [1823. Feb y. 27. Greece. J.B's Observations]
    Description: 1823. Feb y. 27.

    Greece. J.B's Observations on particular Articles.

    Judiciary

    In each Judicatory, efficient cause of location, the choice made, and will declared, by the Minister of Justice. Efficient cause of dislocation, votes to that effect by the majority of the Electors appertaining to the Judicial district or sub-district as above, as the case may be. This, without cause necessarily assigned. The Electors being on each day after giving their votes on the occasion of the election of a Representative in the Legislative Assembly, called upon to give their votes for or against the existing Judge, but not in favour of any other person in the character of a Candidate for that same situation. In case of a majority for displacement, obligation on the Minister of Justice to place another individual in that same Judicatory, but with power to place in any other Judicatory the so displaced Judge. On the part of the Electors, No specific assigned cause for such displacement need be made necessary, but in the nature of the case no proposition to that effect could ever be made with any prospect of success without assigned causes in abundance. Power to the Minister of Justice to propose to any Judge at any time, and accept his resignation, and upon refusal or silence to displace him, assigning or not assigning a specificcause or causes. Power to the so displaced Judge to stand forth in public for the vindication of his character, and to contest the existence or the sufficiency, or both, of any causes so assigned. On this head some provisions of detail would be found requisite.

    Reasons why the power of location should, in regard to all these Judicatories, be in the hand of a single person, the Minister of Justice: 1. the object of the judicial system taken in the aggregate being to give and secure execution and effect to the whole body of the Law all over the territory of the state taken in the aggregate, one main business of the Minister of Justice will be, according to the measure of his ability, to secure consistency and symmetry in the plan and mode according to which such execution and effect is given or professed to be given in every such field of Jurisdiction throughout the state.

    The
  • Title: [1823 Feb. 16 J.B's Articles and Reasons]
    Description: 1823 Feb. 16

    J.B's Articles and Reasons

    Judiciary

    1 To the people at large possessors of the supreme Constitutive power the function of placing the several Judges efficiently in the [...?] judicial districts ought not to be attributed.

    Reason. They can not have sufficient means of being antecedently sufficiently acquainted with the aggregate appropriate aptitude of those who would be proposed or propose themselves for the office.

    Reason 2. To find time sufficient for the exercise of such a function well or ill in addition to the operations necessary to the procurement of subsistence would be physically impossible.

    2 In each such Judicial district neither ought the same power to be attributed with reference to the Judicatory having authority in and over such their respective districts

    Reason 1. Want of adequate means of acquaintance /information/ as above

    2. Probability of partial affection: and corruptive intimacy between the Judge so appointed and those leaders of the people by whose influence he had been appointed.

    [...?] For this reason in each such district the functionary filling this office should at the time of his nomination be one of whom it is ascertained that he is as free as may be from all personal connections within the district.

    3. The power of displacing the functionary in question after experience had of him ought to be vested in the hands here in question. But /And/ if the power of placing were in the same hands, the power of displacing would be likely to remain unexercised in cases in which a well grounded demand for the exercise of it had place.

    4. The mode of exercising the power of displacing a Judge by the Electors of his district ought to be by secret suffrages openly delivered as in the case of an Election of the Members of the supreme legislative.
  • Title: [1823 Feb. 16 Judiciary Reason]
    Description: 1823 Feb. 16

    Judiciary

    Reason 2. To the body of the laws taken together due execution and effect can not be given unless in the mode of giving execution and effect to them as between district and district there be a certain uniformity: and for want of such uniformity considerable evil might accrue to the whole, though such an evil as in the eyes of a majority of the persons wishing to give their suffrages on this occasion for the displacing of the Judge would not be sufficiently sensible.

    A Judge, before he has been displaced by the act of the Minister of Justice should have the power of obtaining a hearing [...? ...? ...?] of the public

    Antecedently to every instance of such / the exercise of the power of/ displacement timely notice of his eventual intention should be given to the Judge, and a day appointed at which in the face of the Judge, and of the assembled public the Minister shall alledge his reasons, giving to the Judge at the same time the faculty of assigning whatsoever reasons he may be disposed to assign against his being so dealt with: or on this occasion the Minister may committ the task of assigning these reasons to any other person at pleasure, he sitting in the seat and character of a Judge, hearing the reasons on both sides and determining accordingly

    For avoidance of such scrutiny, a Judge to whom any such notice has been delivered or who is under apprehension of receiving any such notice will have the faculty of hiding his resignation: in which case his resignation may be received, or refused: in case of refusal thereupon shall come the notice to appear and defend himself against a positive displacement, as above