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Judicial impartiality recommendations to encourage cultural diversity
The Asian Australian Lawyers Association (AALA) has congratulated the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) on the launch of a report promoting judicial impartiality — a move towards encouraging cultural diversity in the legal profession.
Jess Feyder
The report, Without Fear or Favour: Judicial Impartiality and the Law on Bias, comprises 14 recommendations that seek to promote and protect judicial impartiality and public confidence in the commonwealth judiciary. The report was tabled in Parliament on 2 August.
In July 2021, the AALA made a submission to the inquiry into the laws relating to judicial impartiality and bias as they apply to the federal judiciary. The submission highlighted the lack of cultural diversity within the judiciary and senior ranks of the legal profession.
The AALA’s submission also noted the importance of education and training for the reduction of unconscious cultural bias when appearing in court. Their submissions have been extensively referred to in the report.
AALA national president Molina Asthana noted that the report is an encouraging step towards ensuring greater cultural diversity in the legal profession.
“AALA welcomes the report’s 14 recommendations,” said Ms Asthana. “We are very happy that our call for greater inclusion and diversity in the legal profession has been embraced in the report.
“In particular, recommendation seven calls for a transparent appointment process for judicial officers with selection to be based on criteria such as cultural awareness and the enhancement of diversity of both expertise and lived experience on the bench.
“Recommendation eight calls for the collection of statistics on judicial diversity.
“AALA believes that these recommendations are important for maintaining public confidence in the administration of justice and are also reflective of the value of diversity in the delivery of justice.
“We call on the government to commit to immediate action to implement these recommendations in order to address the issues of real, apparent, and apprehended bias in the judicial system.”
