Skaraborg for Justice

I’ll be referring to my previous campaign thread for information about me and my legal background. You can find that here

This thread will be the place to ask me any questions. My availability looks good for the next term, although this election comes at an awkward time because I’m hopping on a plane to Morocco tomorrow for a week’s holiday.

I’ll still be checking in and answering questions as best I can while I’m away. Looking forward to hearing from you!

/Skaraborg

Have fun in Morocco!

Enjoy your vacation.

You have my support.

Full support!

How would you make sure your decisions as a Justice are fair and consistent, especially when cases are tricky or the law isn’t totally clear?

Note: I'm asking this to all candidates who already have one of these threads up

Art Landia:

How would you make sure your decisions as a Justice are fair and consistent, especially when cases are tricky or the law isn’t totally clear?

Note: I'm asking this to all candidates who already have one of these threads up

Click to expand...

To ensure fairness and consistency in my decisions, it’s important to follow the precedent set by past judges. Precedents help maintain predictability and stability, which are essential for a fair legal system. However, I also recognize that precedents aren’t set in stone for eternity. If a change in the law or in its practical application has made a past precedent outdated or incompatible, it’s sometimes necessary to revisit and, with care, move away from it.

When no clear precedent exists, I would look to established practice and comparable situations for guidance. In some areas, such as treaty law, customary practice can be a useful interpretive tool.

Equally important is understanding legislative intent. Interpreting what the law’s authors meant when they drafted it. By reviewing archived threads, you can ensure that rulings stay true to both the spirit of the law as well as the letter of the law. To set a new precedent, it’s important to use reasoning grounded in common sense as well as the prior principles.

In criminal law, it’s essential to stay within the scope of the legal text and avoid extending existing precedents by analogy to cover situations not clearly included by law. The broad range of offences (like gross misconduct) provides flexibility, but it’s still crucial to make sure all legal conditions are met before finding someone guilty.