The judicial tenure is as important as the method of appointment in securing the independence and impartiality of judges. The most common judicial tenure is during good behaviour, with compulsory retirement at a definite age.
In most of the Swiss Cantons and some of the States of America, where judges are popularly elected, there are short terms of tenure subject to re-election.
But popular election of judges and their short tenures are not politic as they tend to rob the judge of their independence. Freedom and independence are best secured by long tenures. Judges appointed for short terms are likely to abuse their position. They would make the best of their short term disregarding all canons of justice and even the principles of decency.
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Good behaviour till the age of retirement is, therefore, the method which is the best and is now generally recommended and followed. “The standard of good behaviour for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy,” said Hamilton “is certainly one of the most valuable of the modem improvements in the practice of government.
In a monarchy, it is an excellent barrier to the despotism of the prince; in a republic, it is no less excellent barrier to the encroachments and oppressions of the representative body.
And it is the best expedient which can be devised in any government to secure a steady, upright and impartial administration of the laws.”
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Finally, good-behaviour tenure is necessary to secure full minute and mature knowledge of law and judicial precedents which constitute one of the most important sources of strength in the judicial office.
In the course of a long and uninterrupted judicial career, a judge can and does acquire a complete knowledge of precedents, the nature and operation of laws as in other countries, of the psychology that determines human conduct and the social and economic changes which characterise a dynamic society.
To understand man and the principles on which law is built is as important as to know the law itself. This obviously cannot be gained by one whose tenure is brief and precarious.