As an important part of the construction of court team, the construction of judges' professional ethics is an effective means to improve judges' quality and shape their image. Because of this, courts all over the country attach great importance to the construction of judges' professional ethics, and have successively formulated a series of laws, regulations and measures to regulate, restrict and supervise judges' professional behavior, in order to cultivate and strengthen judges' professional ethics awareness, which has achieved good results. 10 On June 8 this year, the Supreme Court promulgated the Basic Code of Professional Ethics for Judges in People's Republic of China (PRC), which is a programmatic document guiding the work style and team building of the people's courts. However, on the whole, the construction of judges' professional ethics in China is still relatively weak, and there is still a big gap with the requirements of the people. There are many problems to be explored and solved. This paper intends to talk about the relationship between the construction of judges' professional ethics and judicial justice.
First of all, strengthening the construction of judges' professional ethics is the premise and guarantee to realize judicial justice.
Xiao Yang, president of the Supreme Court of China, pointed out: "Whether people's judges have good conduct and noble moral sentiments is of great significance to ensuring fair justice." By linking the professional ethics of judges with judicial justice, we can see the importance of strengthening the professional ethics of judges in the current judicial reform process. The reason why this issue has been promoted to such an important height is that it is decided by the two-way function of interdependence and mutual premise between the construction of judges' professional ethics and the realization of judicial justice. On the one hand, the construction of judges' professional ethics is the premise and guarantee to realize judicial justice; On the other hand, judicial justice puts forward strict requirements for judges' professional ethics and conduct.
As the premise and guarantee of judicial justice, the basic meaning of the construction of judges' professional ethics is that strengthening the construction of judges' professional ethics is an effective means to improve the quality of judges, and a high-quality team of judges plays a decisive role in realizing judicial justice.
1, the professional ethics of judges has the function of ensuring judicial justice.
The word "virtue" has existed in China's ancient books for a long time. For example, in The Analects of Confucius, "taking Tao as the aim and relying on virtue" and in Mencius, "respecting virtue and valuing Taoism" all emphasize morality. The so-called "Tao" refers to the road that people take, which is extended to the social code of conduct, rules and norms that people must follow. "Virtue" means that people know and follow "Tao", that is "virtue". "Tao" has strong objectivity, which mainly refers to the external normative requirements; "Virtue" tends to be subjective, mainly referring to people's inner spiritual things. Rulers at all times and all over the world attach great importance to the role of morality, regard morality as a means to consolidate power, and believe that "governing the country is governing officials." To govern officials, we must start with "morality". Confucius said that "ruling the country by virtue" means "being honest and not commanding; His body is not right, although he does not obey. " These thoughts of attaching importance to morality played a certain role in maintaining feudal rule.
There are essential differences between socialist morality and the morality of the feudal ruling class, which have richer connotations and play an important role in the construction of socialist spiritual civilization. General Secretary Jiang pointed out: "The rule of law and the rule of virtue have always been complementary and mutually reinforcing. Both are indispensable and cannot be neglected. " At the celebration of the eightieth anniversary of the founding of the China Producer Party, General Secretary Jiang also called on the whole party to strive to improve the ideological and moral quality and scientific and cultural quality of the whole nation and realize the all-round development of people's ideological and spiritual life. General Secretary Jiang's important exposition on "ruling the country by virtue" is an innovation and perfection of the general plan of governing the country in the new historical development period, which fully affirms the value and function of morality.
Professional ethics is closely related to people's professional activities. Engels once pointed out: "In fact, every class, even every industry, has its own morality." The ethics of every industry mentioned here are professional ethics. As a practitioner of a specific profession, judges should not only follow the general moral norms that ordinary people should follow. We should also follow the special moral standards required by the judge's profession. It is these norms that embody the most essential characteristics of the judge profession. Judge's professional ethics is a kind of judicial professional ethics, which refers to the code of conduct and moral quality that personnel engaged in judicial work should follow in the process of performing their duties. The professional ethics of judges not only regulates the individual behavior of judges, but also has a binding and normative effect on the overall behavior of people's courts. The improvement of group professional ethics is more important than the improvement of individual professional ethics. In this sense, although court staff other than judges do not belong to the category of judges, their actions should be brought into the professional ethics system of judges and managed and supervised in a unified way.
The particularity of the judge's profession determines that the judge's professional ethics has stricter responsibility, compulsion and self-discipline than the general social morality. This is because the professional ethics of judges are subordinate to political power, and all professional activities within the scope of judges' duties are closely related to the operation of power. As the last line of defense to safeguard social justice, the court has to take many contradictions in society to the court to solve when educational, administrative and economic means cannot be used. Therefore, judges bear the great responsibility of maintaining social justice, and the requirements for judges' professional ethics should be higher than other professional ethics. At present, although there are many reasons for judicial injustice and judicial corruption in China, the low overall quality and moral cultivation of judges is also one of the important reasons, which has become a major obstacle to fair justice. If our judges don't have the proper moral quality, and can't be loyal to the law, honest and clean, honest and self-disciplined, cultivate one's morality and serve the people, it will be difficult to achieve the goal of judicial justice.
2. There are all kinds of bad professional ethics in the ranks of judges, which is detrimental to the image of courts and judges and affects the realization of judicial justice.
Judicial justice includes not only substantive justice and procedural justice, but also image justice. Image justice is the external expression of judicial justice. It's like going to the hospital. If we meet a doctor whose behavior and words are inappropriate, it is easy for us to doubt his medical skills. In fact, perhaps the doctor's medical skills are fine, even quite brilliant, but perhaps it is because of his bad image that he lost the trust of his patients. Sun Simiao, a famous doctor in Tang Dynasty in China, once made an incisive exposition on medical ethics. He believes that if someone comes to see a doctor, no matter "rich or poor, old or young, caring for friends, being smart and stupid", they should be treated equally. In the diagnosis and treatment, although "the front is everywhere", "the silk is close to the ear" and "the delicacies are all sent", it is the basic medical ethics of "saving lives". By the same token, a judge with blunt tone, indifferent attitude and loose style can't be respected and convinced by the parties. To solve the problems of individual judges' misconduct and poor image, we must start with their inherent ideological and moral qualities, consolidate the foundation and cultivate the yuan. The professional ethics of judges should be used to restrain and standardize their job behavior.
The main manifestations of judges' bad professional ethics are: some judges have low ideological quality, shaken ideals and beliefs, weak sense of purpose, and weak sense of professionalism and responsibility. Lack of goals in life; Some people have poor moral cultivation, do not cherish the honor of judges, and behave badly, which affects the image of judges. Some are ignorant, enterprising, greedy for pleasure, addicted to karaoke bars, playing mahjong, and even staying out at night. When I go to work, I feel depressed and have no will; Some are arrogant, have a serious idea of privilege, bossing around the parties, using their judicial power as a bargaining chip, eating and taking cards, and so on; Some people do not pay attention to their public image and talk about specific cases in public, which has a bad social impact; Some even violated the confidentiality provisions, leaked the opinions of the collegiate bench, and even the discussion of the case by the judicial Committee and the internal reply of the court to the parties, resulting in the passivity of the case trial; Some collude with lawyers and clients, fabricate "facts", confuse right and wrong, or take advantage of the loopholes in the law to apply the law wrongly; Some use the convenience of working in the court to act as litigation brokers and interfere with the normal work of the court; Some work is seriously irresponsible and inefficient, and the cases have been delayed for a long time, and the masses have great opinions; Some people are lazy, lax in discipline, late for work and leave early, and "slip the number" in the middle, and liberalism is serious. All these have exposed many problems in the construction of judges' professional ethics in China, which has led to the people's great opinions on the court and the decline of the credibility of the judicial society, which has seriously affected the realization of judicial justice.
3. Judges lack professional ethics and are lax in self-discipline, which can easily become a hotbed of judicial corruption.
Some unjust, false and misjudged cases in the court team, and even judicial corruption of individual personnel, are often the result of their low moral standards, neglect of their own behavior and gradual development and evolution. Some cases that arouse strong public dissatisfaction are often caused by bad professional ethics of judges. On the surface, it seems that moral problems are not a big problem, and criticism and education are enough. From the internal management of the court, it is easy to neglect and paralysis, but some problems often occur in the "small section", from quantitative change to qualitative change, resulting in a big mistake. Judging from the cases of some police officers violating the law and discipline in the court system in recent years, most police officers have such defects in their professional ethics. It is these defects that are not easily noticed that provide the soil for corruption. If we can find it in time, educate it carefully and correct it quickly, it can still be saved. Therefore, we should pay enough attention to the construction of judges' professional ethics, start with bad phenomena and small things, prevent slow progress and thoroughly eradicate the soil where evil breeds corruption.
Second, judicial justice puts forward strict requirements for judges' professional ethics.
Justice is the core and ultimate goal of justice, and the trial work, team building and court reform of the people's courts should be carried out around this core goal. Therefore, the construction of judges' professional ethics should be regarded as an important part of the construction of the court team to meet the requirements of the overall goal of judicial justice. Fundamentally speaking, the professional ethics of judges is determined by their professional mission, which is to fully safeguard judicial justice. The Code promulgated by the Supreme Court puts forward strict and clear requirements for judges' professional ethics from six aspects: ensuring judicial justice, improving judicial efficiency, maintaining honesty, observing judicial etiquette, strengthening self-cultivation and restraining extracurricular activities, which constitutes the core content of judges' professional ethics in China. The independence and impartiality of judges are the most basic and core requirements for the normal functioning of judicial functions. If there is no independence and justice, the judge profession will lose its value of existence; The requirement of honesty makes the judge rule out the influence of improper interests on fair justice; Abiding by judicial etiquette is the basic procedure of judges' professional activities, which is conducive to safeguarding judicial dignity, embodying the civilization and credibility of judicial activities, and creating conditions and environment for the parties to fully exercise their litigation rights; Strengthening the quality of judges themselves is the eternal professional moral obligation of judges; It is also very important to establish the image of judicial justice, safeguard judicial dignity and restrain the activities outside the duties of judges.
The Code also regulates the official and unofficial speeches, behaviors and activities of judges, mainly including:
1. In terms of judicial justice, in addition to observing the system of withdrawal of judges in trial activities, judges should request that the case not be tried if they think that the public may have reasonable doubts about the fair judgment of the case when trying the case; During the trial, one party and his agent shall not be met privately; Don't show any discrimination because of their language and behavior; Subjective prejudice, abuse of power and neglect of law should be avoided to ensure judicial justice. In addition, in order to ensure the independence of the trial, judges should respect other judges' independent exercise of judicial power, and must not make personal suggestions and opinions to the people's court at a higher level on the case of second instance unless they perform their judicial duties and go through due process; Shall not inquire about the trial of cases undertaken by other judges and related information; Avoid being improperly influenced by public opinion.
2. In terms of judicial efficiency, judges should perform their duties wholeheartedly, strictly abide by the time limit for litigation prescribed by law, arrange and control trials scientifically, reasonably and effectively, and shorten the litigation period as much as possible. Judges shall not be affected by personal affairs, schedules or other behaviors to perform their duties normally; Pay attention to saving the time of the parties.
3. In terms of strict self-discipline, judges have the obligation to resist illegitimate interests and an honest attitude, and may not directly or indirectly use their positions and positions to seek any illegitimate interests. Including not accepting hospitality, property and other benefits from the parties, their agents ad litem and defenders, not deliberately disclosing the identity of a judge in order to obtain special care, and not using the identity of a judge to obtain illegitimate interests. In addition, judges should truthfully declare their property, and the lifestyle and living standards of judges and their family members should be consistent with their positions and incomes.
4. In regulating the activities outside the judicial duties of judges, judges should be careful to go in and out of social occasions and make friends, not to engage in inappropriate social activities, not to disclose or use non-public information obtained as judges, and not to participate in profit-making organizations; After retirement, judges should continue to maintain their good image and avoid inappropriate words and deeds that make the public have reasonable doubts about judicial justice. In a word, the above provisions are the requirements of judicial justice, and also reflect the expectations and requirements of the party and the people, the state and society for judges.
Third, strengthen the professional ethics education of judges and build a fair team of judges.
The key to the construction of court team is to improve the quality of judges, and strengthening the professional ethics education of judges is an effective means to improve the quality of judges. The construction of judges' professional ethics is a long-term strategic task of the people's court. The focus of the construction should be the professional ethics education of judges, so that every judge can know which behaviors must be observed and resolutely prevent and stop immoral behaviors. The task of judges' professional ethics education is to convey the principles, norms and categories of socialist judicial ethics to judges and lay a deep ideological foundation for the cultivation and improvement of judges' moral quality. Good moral quality is not born or formed spontaneously, but gradually formed through education. Through the professional ethics education of judges, the responsibility of judges to the organization will be transformed into personal inner beliefs, and the ability of self-discipline and self-improvement will be enhanced. Even in places where laws, regulations and rules can't be managed, you can choose your own behavior correctly, be cautious and independent, consciously abide by moral principles and implement self-control and supervision when you are alone, unsupervised and unknown.
The ways and methods of judges' professional ethics education mainly include five aspects: improving judges' moral consciousness, establishing judges' moral beliefs, cultivating judges' moral feelings, exercising judges' moral will and cultivating judges' moral habits.
1. Improving moral awareness is the premise and foundation of moral education for judges. Under the guidance of scientific theory, judges should be systematically educated and indoctrinated with social morality and the concept of judges' morality required by the state, so that they can deeply understand and understand the content and significance of the principles, norms and categories of social morality and judges' morality, and consciously standardize their words and deeds. Moral understanding is the forerunner of moral quality. Without correct and noble moral understanding, there will be no noble moral behavior, and it is impossible to form noble moral quality. Moral understanding is also moral consciousness, or moral sense. As a judge, it is his bounden duty to think from the legal point of view, but he should also learn to be a man from morality and conscience and constantly enhance his sense of morality. In this way, you can constantly correct your behavior and keep yourself in good conduct.
2. Cultivating judges' moral feelings is a necessary part of judges' moral education. The so-called judge's moral emotion is a kind of likes and dislikes when people deal with judge's moral relationship and evaluate judge's moral behavior according to certain judge's moral concept. Judge's moral emotion is an internal spiritual force, which affects people's acceptance and rejection of certain ideas, concepts and behaviors. Cultivating judges' moral emotion is to transform abstract and external judges' moral knowledge into personal internal psychological requirements, which is a necessary factor to establish moral belief and form moral quality.
3. Exercising judges' moral will is an important guarantee for judges' moral education. Moral will refers to a person's perseverance and ability to overcome difficulties and eliminate interference while adhering to moral principles and improving moral cultivation. When performing a judge's moral obligation, he sometimes encounters resistance and interference from all sides, such as the criticism of public opinion, the abuse of relatives and friends, the entanglement of the parties, the obstruction of evil forces, and the suppression of administrative power. Faced with this situation, people who are not determined will waver, compromise and give up their duties; And a strong-willed person can firmly fulfill his moral responsibility. Whether a person's will can stand the test is one of the important signs of his moral level.
4. Establishing judges' moral belief is the core of judges' moral education. Judge's moral belief refers to the clarity of moral understanding, the consciousness of fulfilling moral obligations and the firmness of pursuing moral ideals shown by judges in trial practice. On the basis of a certain outlook on life and world, the judge's moral belief deepens and sublimates the existing morality and internalizes it into an unshakable moral pursuit.
5. Cultivating judges' moral habits is one of the main purposes of judges' moral education. Moral habit is the natural expression and expression of a person's inner moral requirements, and it is an important standard to measure a person's moral level and moral quality. Good moral habits are formed in long-term theoretical study and practice, from conscious efforts and supervision, until they enter the realm of "habit becomes nature" and "follow your heart without overstepping the bounds".
The above five aspects are interrelated and complement each other. Judge's moral knowledge is the starting point, judge's moral emotion is the psychological foundation, judge's moral will is the spiritual guarantee, judge's moral belief is the motive force and source, judge's moral habit is the external performance, and * * * has created judge's moral quality. The process of building judges' professional ethics is the process of internalizing judges' moral quality. Only by "self-morality, professional morality and social morality" can judges fundamentally safeguard judicial justice.
Admittedly, although we have the standards of judges' professional ethics to follow and mastered the ways and methods of judges' professional ethics education, the task of judges' professional ethics construction is still very arduous because of the imperfect legal system construction in China and the low overall quality of judges. We should take the construction of judges' professional ethics as a long-term strategic work, persevere, and gradually establish and improve the implementation mechanism of judges' professional ethics construction. Starting with ideological and political work, we can understand the ideological trends of judges and carry out work in a targeted manner. Supplemented by an effective professional self-discipline mechanism. According to the actual needs, formulate necessary rules and regulations to restrain and standardize the behavior of judges, such as the disciplinary measures for judges stipulated in the Judges Law. On this basis, the construction of judges' professional ethics should also highlight the key points. The connotation of judge's professional ethics construction is very rich. Only by grasping the key points can we drive the overall situation and get twice the result with half the effort. In my opinion, the cultivation of judges' professionalism and sense of responsibility should be put in the first place, which is the basic condition for realizing judicial duties. As a judge, whether he has a sense of responsibility, professional belief and mission, and whether he puts all his energy into his work will directly affect the realization of the rights of the parties, the image of the judge, the reputation and life of the judge's profession, and ultimately affect the realization of fair justice. Only by constantly enhancing the sense of responsibility and mission, pioneering and innovating, being loyal to their duties and working hard can judges ensure the normal performance of their judicial duties. With the continuous improvement of the construction of judges' professional ethics in China, the level of judges' professional ethics in China will continue to improve, and a team of judges with high professional ethics and excellent quality will play an important role in the process of governing the country according to law and building a socialist country ruled by law.