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Sustaining the Character of a Judge: Conflict Within the Legal Thought of British India

Abstract

Judicial roles provided the raj with major dilemmas. One persistent dispute related to civil servants sitting as judges. Critics argued that civil servants had a superficial legal education and lacked appropriate practical experience of work in the courts. Defenders of their judicial role contended that the best training for judges lay in administrative work on the plains of the sub-continent. Governors-general, viceroys, and others in executive positions claimed that such work provided officials with an understanding of Indian society and that this social knowledge made them effective judges. Professional judges drawn from the ranks of barristers and sitting in the major cities of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras frequently contested this view and the result was sustained disagreement. At the heart of the debate lay competing visions of justice.

Acceptance Date Mar 4, 2014
Publication Date Mar 4, 2014
Journal Journal of Legal History
Print ISSN 0144-0365
Publisher Routledge
Pages 44-67
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/01440365.2014.883048
Keywords law, British India
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01440365.2014.883048

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