"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message

Our Federal judges serve for life or good behavior (U.S. Constitution,
Art.
III, Sec. 1).


So are Canadian judges

http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/dept/pub/trib/page4.html

No, not exactly.

Their "security of tenture" seems to be based on statute, not Constitution
(although I may be mistaken; the source of the tenure is not clearly
stated).

They may be removed for ethical violations by a council of other judges (who
may or may not be subject to political pressure).

A U.S. Federal judge holds a lifetime commission and can only be removed by
impeachment. Very few have suffered this fate.

Note that financial security also flows from the Constitution.
Administrative independance has a clear basis in common law.

Not much can happen to such an official who does get "tied down" in
trivia.


Except that he becomes unable to spend time on important matters.

Indeed. But it is the judge, him/herself that determines what is or is not
important.

It's not perfect but it helps

Perhaps. On the other hand it does keep the heavy hand of any given
administration from bringing direct pressure on judges for some specific
outcome.

Bill Kambic



How does spending time on trivial cases do that exactly ?

It doesn't.

The point Peter makes is valid. There have been similar cases
in the UK where a trial judge found for the prosecution on
the point of law but gave the defendant an absolute discharge
and made the prosecution pay his costs after lecturing the
prosecuting counsel about bringing such trivial matters before
the court. This ****ed off the Crown Prosecution Service to be sure
but was hardly evidence of the subservience of judges, quite
the reverse in fact.

Never suggested that British or Commonwealth judges don't have a measure of
independance. Just that their power, and their degree of independance, flow
from Parliament (if that's how the legislature is styled).

I have also seen Federal and state court judges dismiss cases where the
defendant was clearly guilty with costs to the state and give the prosecutor
a first class "red ass" for wasting the court's time. I have also seen
judges at both levels reject plea agreements because it was too lienient and
force the case to trial.

An independant judiciary is a Very Good Thing, but no guarantee against
judicial silliness.

Bill Kambic

If, by any act, error, or omission, I have, intentionally or
unintentionally, displayed any breedist, disciplinist, sexist, racist,
culturalist, nationalist, regionalist, localist, ageist, lookist, ableist,
sizeist, speciesist, intellectualist, socioeconomicist, ethnocentrist,
phallocentrist, heteropatriarchalist, or other violation of the rules of
political correctness, known or unknown, I am not sorry and I encourage you
to get over it.