{"id":979,"date":"2021-09-22T09:16:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T09:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.freedomunderlaw.org\/2021\/09\/27\/what-criteria-does-the-judicial-service-commission-use-for-appointing-judges\/"},"modified":"2023-03-15T08:34:48","modified_gmt":"2023-03-15T08:34:48","slug":"what-criteria-does-the-judicial-service-commission-use-for-appointing-judges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freedomunderlaw.org\/2021\/09\/22\/what-criteria-does-the-judicial-service-commission-use-for-appointing-judges\/","title":{"rendered":"What criteria does the JSC use for appointing judges?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Judicial Service Commission (JSC) has recently been the focus of justifiable criticism, so much so that a constitutional challenge to the April round of interviews led to an ignominious capitulation by the JSC, without even an oral hearing of the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this instance, the Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (Casac) argued that the manner in which some members of the JSC behaved during the public interviews of candidates for judicial office, and also the manner which characterised their discussion of the candidates, rendered their recommendations irrational. Sadly, such aberrant conduct was not confined only to the party-political members of the JSC; indeed, some of the most objectionable interventions emanated from those representing the legal profession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has the JSC fared generally in its vital role of appointing judges? Despite some moments of controversy and some glaring and inexplicable anomalies, most would agree that it has done, until recently, a reasonable job in the execution of its appointments mandate. In particular, the JSC has vigorously pursued the demographic transformation of the judicial corps, in fulfilling its constitutional obligation to appoint \u201cany appropriately qualified woman or man who is a fit and proper person\u201d while simultaneously \u201c[considering] the need for the judiciary to reflect broadly the racial and gender composition\u201d of the South African population. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the JSC had by 2013 already ensured that more than 60% of our judges were black, and over 30% were women; although leadership positions were still almost exclusively filled by men. An important contributor to this radical but overdue and entirely justifiable \u201crecomposition\u201d of the Bench was the widening of the pool from which judges were appointed, to include attorneys, law academics, and magistrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What criteria does the JSC use to make its decisions? Beyond the constitutional provisions set out above, three attempts have been made to interpret those requirements, situated within the context of the administration of justice and the practices and ethics of the legal profession in this country. When the JSC sat to recommend the appointment of justices to the first Constitutional Court in 1994, the following characteristics were highlighted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n