…The issue of Judicial reform has been ceremoniously been brought to life time to time, for a very long period now. Recently, the 64days strike by the judicial arm of government came to a halt on the 9th day of June, 2021, yet we can’t help but wonder in awe and keep asking ourselves the beckoning question, “To what end have the resolutions made being attained”?
However, with the recent call for a constitution review, it becomes unavoidable and pertinent to critically analyze the issues and contentions that surround calls for the judicial reform. Indeed, as Benjamin Cardozo cautions “…a Judge is not to innovate at pleasure. He is not a Knight-errant, roaming at will in pursuit of his own ideal of beauty or of goodness. He is not to yield to spasmodic sentiment, to vague and unregulated benevolence. He is to exercise a discretion, informed by tradition, methodized by analogy, disciplined by system and subordinated to the primordial necessity of order in social life”. The judiciary ought to be distinct from the insubordination of the society and its vices, but how is this even close to possibility, if the system remains decayed due to the dilemma surrounding it.
Justices are not immortals. They are fleshed humans with blood running through their veins and to think otherwise is arrogance. As, Hon. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, JSC, succinctly expresses the same sentiment, in the specific context of the Supreme Court, in the following terms; “…We are final not because we are infallible, rather we are infallible because we are final. Justices of this court are human beings capable of erring. It will certainly be short-sighted arrogance not to accept this obvious truth” it is paramount to know that unless judicial reform is attained, the judiciary will remain wallowing, not in mere errors but one capable of destruct.
Read the full details in the below well researched write up by a team of young vibrant legal minds below.
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