In Pursuit of Actual Justice

Sarah M. R. Cravens, University of Akron School of Law

Abstract

This Article proposes that the fundamental goal of judicial ethics and practice is to achieve actual justice in judicial decisionmaking. To that end, it argues that current attempts to resolve concerns about impartial judicial decisionmaking through appearance-based recusal and disqualification standards are ill-conceived and ineffective. It proposes a substantial curtailment of recusals and a corresponding strengthening of the judicial duty to sit. It proposes to resolve fundamental concerns about actual justice and, at the same time, to address concerns about public confidence in the judiciary through a requirement that judges provide explanations of adequate internal legal reasons supporting their dispositive decisions. Such a move puts the focus on those reasoned elaborations in the assessment of the legitimacy of both the decisions and the performance of the judges who reached them rather than on a focus on mere guesswork about what might be influencing judges in their deliberations.