JB_106_366.xml

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

JB_021_275.xml

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

Description: 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.

JB_106_369.xml

Title: [1823 Feb. 28 Greece. J.B's Observations]

Description: 1823 Feb. 28

Greece. J.B's Observations etc

Judiciary resumed

To exclude partiality and all suspicion of it, it should be a declared object of endeavour to keep the Judge clear of all local connection in the way of interest or sympathy, hence it should be a general rule that no Judge should continue such in any one district for any long time, say for more 3 years, nor be appointed Judge in any district in which he already has connexions of a certain description, to be specified, and his being known or suspected to have subsequently formed any such connexions, may be stated as warrantable grounds for a proposition for his displacement as above but no such connexion should be stated as a necessary efficient cause for his displacement and provision might be made by means of which in pursuance of a desire not much short of universal expressed by his justiciables, his continuance in that district might be prolonged.

As to the composition of the Jury, the exclusion of two evils, viz. partiality to the prejudice of the party in the right, vexation by attendance to the injury of the Jurors themselves, will be the leading ends in view. To secure a majority, the number should in every case be odd: less therefore than three it can not be. The greater the number more than three, the more extended the vexation. For securing impartiality, and thus far appropriate moral aptitude, not indeed to a certainty, that being impossible but the best possible chance in favour of it, appointment by lot (provided the numbers of those included in the Lottery be sufficiently ample and indiscriminately taken) will suffice: for augmenting the chance of appropriate intellectual aptitude, viz. knowledge and judgment, the following course may be taken. The whole number of individuals in the district liable to serve as Jurors, divide into two classes - viz. the more erudite and the less erudite: for a Jury of three, take one from the more erudite class: to the influence of understanding on understanding, where moral inaptitude is not suspected, trust for his opinions being taken as a guide by his less erudite colleagues.

In