The Challenge Of Subjectivity In Judicial Decisions

Abstract

Judicial decisions are intrinsically human judgments made about the rightness and wrongness of actions of other humans. They ought to be made only by human beings. They should not be made by machines or even made by humans in a mechanical manner.  This is why the Conduct of the Judge is of paramount importance. Conduct is based on both subjectivity and objectivity of a judge. However, there is no excuse for allowing the purely “subjective notions” of the Judge any play in judicial decision making, let alone a decisive role the “subjective” being understood here, as it is defined in the dictionary, as the “personal and the idiosyncratic”.