ASSIGNMENT ( The judiciary as a referee ) Essay

ASSIGNMENT ( The judiciary as a referee ) - Essay Example It plays the role of a neutral arbiter, or a referee in any dispute before it, by applying the law as it is to the facts before it. The judiciary is vested with the powers to interpret the law. The Supreme Court is the court of last resort as far as interpretation of the law is concerned. The duty of the court is to interpret the statute law from parliament, to affect the purpose and intention of the parliament. The judiciary cannot make law. If the parliament is not satisfied with the way the court interprets the law, it can make law to quash the court’s interpretation. As a referee, it is the judiciary’s role to determine who should do what, or which state of affairs should prevail in any dispute that is presented before it, that is, it makes decisions. In essence, it arbitrates disputes that arise over facts and law. In doing so, the judiciary should apply the law, and should not let the personal opinion of individual judges or their bias to influence the outcome of the court. Everyone should be treated equally before the law, and it should act without fear or favour. The New Zealand legal system is an adversarial one and, therefore, the judge’s duty is just to hear cases presented by both sides, and plays minimal role as far as evidence adducing is concerned. To add, they should not make law or policy that should be a reserve of the parliament. ... In doing so, the court can never question the validity of the Acts that have been passed by parliament. The court has jurisdiction to look into administrative decisions of public officials to ensure that they observe the law. The courts role is to ensure that the public officers execute their mandate in good faith, without malice, and pursuant to the law. In R v Somerset County Council, ex parte Fewings [1995] 1 All ER 513, 524, stated that any action taken by a public official must be justified by a positive law. The court also has a duty to enforce and uphold personal liberty and human rights that are enshrined in the law: to wit the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and the Magna Carta 1215, which still applies in New Zealand. Therefore, it is the courts duty to enforce human rights and to prevent the government from abrogating human rights. In Attorney General V Chapman [2011] NZSC 110, the court held that the bill of rights does not apply to the judges in discharge of their du ties. It relied on the common law protections under the judicial immunity to render New Zealand Bill of Rights’ remedies available for breach of rights by the New Zealand judges nugatory. Nevertheless, the judiciary, as a referee, it should not make laws. In essence it does, through the doctrine of precedence. For instance, the court in Fitzgerald v Muldoon [1976] 2 NZLR 615), made a decision that is considered to be part of the constitutional law. In this case, the court held that the Prime Minister had no powers to suspend law. He stated that sentiments made by the Prime Minister to that effect were contrary to the bills of right of 1688 that prohibited public authorities from suspending the law.

Virtue Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Virtue Ethics - Essay Example (Maria 16) The people that have this kind of virtue based ethics tend to ask the major question on which action to choose when they are faced by a dilemma where a basically moral decision has to be taken. The theory also tends to train people on how to overcome the vices such as that of greed or even unnecessary anger that may stand in the way and stop someone from being a good person. The theory of virtue ethics has been in the background of all forms of discussions whereby they have been given a low profile when people meet to discuss issues of morality and the theories involved. In western philosophy, the ancient Greek thinkers had the thought that this kind of ethics was the oldest in terms of time. According to Aristotle, who dealt with the issue of virtue ethics in detail, when a person acquires forms of good habits, then such a person has the ability to regulate emotions and reason in instances that require rationality. Aristotle, therefore, points out to the idea that such un derstanding can help people make decisions that are morally correct when they are face with situations of difficulties. (Maggio 28) The major reason as to why virtue ethics can be said to remain popular and relevant is because it makes a major contribution that would enable us get to understand morality in depth. The discussion also talks majorly of the kind of role played by motives in the whole agenda of morality. Certain forms of virtues remain relevant as they are quite necessary for the actual accommodation of acceptable moral decisions thereby making it rather necessary for the moral decisions to engage correct motives so as to get more desirable end results of the ethical appreciation. Moral decisions are further scrutinized and it is discovered that moral theories do not rely heavily on motives so as to be able play a vital role in the evaluation of our moral decisions. (Maria 19) Correct motivations should be, therefore, encouraged so as to facilitate the evaluation of mora l education that the young people are taken through. The practitioners of this understanding point out the importance of selecting the desire of achieving a certain outcome then keep up with the need to accomplish the said goals by the kinds of actions that can make it acceptable when fully scrutinized. It is also important to note that the other reason why the theories under virtue ethics are prone to be more attractive as compared to the other theories is the idea that most of the other theories have the common way of facing difficulties and challenges that come as a result of calculations that are conducted under moral understanding as well as further problems that arise as a result of the lack of knowledge on the kinds of actions to accompany which kinds of moral duties that have to be emphasized. Theories under virtue ethics point out the understanding that once we are successful in selecting the type of person we want to be, it is possible that arriving at decisions that are m orally acceptable will most obviously come out naturally. Virtue ethics has the tendency of making individuals dig deep into their thoughts to establish the sort of people we want to be, the virtues that are expected of the persons we are trying so hard to be, the kinds of actions that will make us as individuals cultivate the kinds of actions that virtue ethics require us to have if we are to be successful in becoming the people we want to