More Background Papers on Judicial Bias from Australian Law Reform Commission Releases

This is a follow-up to the Library Boy post of January 24, 2021 entitled Australian Law Reform Commission Releases First in Series of Background Papers on Judicial Bias.

As part of its inquiry into the laws that govern impartiality and bias in that country's federal judiciary, the Australian Law Reform Commission has started releasing a series on background papers on the issue.

After a primer on judicial bias published in the winter, the Commission recently published 2 more documents:

• Recusal and self-disqualification: "This background paper is focused on the practical matter of how courts manage claims (and the potential for claims) by litigants that the judicial officer deciding their matter is, or might appear to be, biased."
• The Federal Judiciary – the Inquiry in Context: "This background paper provides an overview of the composition of the federal judiciary; the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth courts; the workload of those courts; and the frequency of complaints against judicial officers (noting that such complaints may not necessarily be in relation to an allegation of impartiality or bias). It also gives a preliminary analysis of information available in judgments over the past five years concerning applications for disqualification on bias grounds."

The Commission hopes to publish a Consultation Paper in April 2021 with questions and draft proposals for public comment.