Abstract
I am often asked whether, as a judge, I ever had to take decisions that I felt to be unjust. This is a tough question since a judge is required to establish the facts and to apply the law to those facts. The acid test is not whether the judgment is just, but whether it is lawful; that is to say, whether the correct law was applied and whether the law was applied correctly. Another important question is, of course, whether the established facts mirror the actual circumstances of the case. Does this mean that justice is wholly irrelevant as a benchmark for court decisions? I hope not, and in my decisions I have always endeavoured to do justice to the particular circumstances of the individual case. Naturally, I cannot say if those concerned felt the same.
Member of the Austrian Parliament, and former President of the Austrian Supreme Court. Translated from German by Harvey Jessop.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Griss, I. (2019). Judges: Servants of the Law – But Also Servants of Justice?. In: Selvik, G., Clifton, MJ., Haas, T., Lourenço, L., Schwiesow, K. (eds) The Art of Judicial Reasoning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02553-3_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02553-3_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02552-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02553-3
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)