Conscience of Judges in International Criminal Law: The Heart of Judgement

For the author, a judge is a person with a high ethical and moral capacity who respects their position. When we think of a court, we think about a place where we confront the truth, where every single individual, every judge and prosecutor, every victim and witness, and every accused person, offender, and the condemned, come together to reveal the naked truth. The main objective of criminal proceedings is to uphold a pure juridical system with full ethical conscience in order to protect the rights of all individuals, including members of the general public. Judges of criminal courts are required to be independent in order to pursue the truth and uphold judicial conscience, which is itself an institution based on the professional values of criminal justice. A judge with ample judicial conscience should not be afraid of being attacked or losing their position if they work to uphold and uncover the truth. This implies the independent freedom of judicial justice. If justice is safe, then the safety of the victims and the accused will also be guaranteed. That is why confidence in the professional standards of the ethical requirements of judges of national criminal courts or of the International Criminal Court is heavily contingent upon the judges' honesty, which in turn relates to their practical experiences and ought to be based on the knowledge of the essence of humanity. Professional ethics are particularly vital when evaluating diverse values and the very question of the existence of pluralist systems of national and international criminal justice which deal with core international crimes. The intention of this work is to assess the way in which our administration of national and international criminal justice requires judges to be impartial, pursue the truth, and not be the puppets of ventriloquist politicians.