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Purposes
and Responsibilities of Courts Why
Courts Exist
Curriculum
Guideline One
Courts and only courts can definitively resolve
society’s inevitable conflicts. When
they resolve disputes between individuals; between individuals and the
government, including those accused by the government of violating the
law; between individuals and corporations; and between organizations both
public and private, they do so in ways that preserve the court’s
independence and impartiality, enduring purposes, and continuing
responsibilities. The courts mediate society’s interest in opposite but
true mandates, in particular the tension between social order and
individual freedom.
Knowledge,
Skills and Abilities
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Knowledge of accepted purposes underlying judicial
process and the management of cases from filing to disposition, the
heart of everyday judicial administration: 1) individual justice in
individual cases; 2) the appearance of individual justice in
individual cases; 3) provision of a forum for the resolution of legal
disputes; 4) protection of individuals from the arbitrary use of
governmental power; 5) a formal record of legal status; 6) deterrence
of criminal behavior; 7) rehabilitation of persons convicted of crime;
and 8) separation of some convicted people from society.
-
Knowledge of the historical role the courts have
played in balancing efficiency, stability, and social order against
individual rights; preserving the equality of the individual and the
state; bringing law in line with everyday norms and values;
establishing the legitimacy of the law;
and in guiding the behavior of individuals and organizations;
-
Knowledge of the historical context which
provided impartial and independent courts as a protection from the
abuse of governmental power and as a safeguard of individual rights;
-
Knowledge
of each and every judge’s independent responsibility for case
decisions, the essential elements of judicial decision making, and
judicial immunity;
-
Knowledge
of the implications of the court as an institution and judicial
decisions as immune from challenge versus the court as an organization
and a bureaucracy;
-
Ability
to maintain judicial and staff awareness that courts were not intended
to be popular;
-
Knowledge
of the perpetual tensions inherent in the Purposes and Responsibilities of Courts including social order
versus liberty, the adversarial process versus consensual or efficient
case process, and the authority of the state versus the protection of
individuals against governmental power.
View
the Summary of Purposes
and Responsibilities of Courts Curriculum Guidelines or click on each of the
other four Curriculum Guidelines to see the
associated Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
 Curriculum
Guidelines
Why
Courts Exist
Courts
as Institutions
Rule
of Law, Equal Protection and Due Process
Accountability Interdependence
and Leadership
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