This lecture addresses “judging itself, and the importance of judicial discipline to a well regulated, republican democracy.”
Within, Chief Justice Strine argues “in favor of a judicial mindset that favors regular order over the episodic judicial grant of exemptions from required procedural expectations and the need to secure contractual rights at the bargaining table… to advocate that judges use the imperfect tools we have to try to provide justice equitably—such as standards of review and principles of interpretation—consistently in like cases, and to avoid deviating from them when political pressures or other factors create a temptation for one-off situational departures… [and] to speak in favor of judges retaining our unique and difficult role, as a part of the government that does something uniquely different from the executive and legislative branches. By adhering to regular order, the judiciary does the most equity, because it upholds the reasonable expectations of citizens in a society governed under law that accords a high level of procedural due process and that now enables all its citizens a fair opportunity to participate in electing legislators and the leaders of our executive branches.”