Legal and Psychological Aspects of Judicial Fairness

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of ensuring the fairness of judicial protection in the aspect of the unity of legal and psychological factors. Judicial activity, being strictly regulated by procedural norms, is largely determined by the personality of the judge as the bearer of judicial power. Attention is drawn to the fact that when appointing judges, little attention is paid to their psychological characteristics, but practice shows that the subsequently identified shortcomings in the work of a judge are due not only to gaps in knowledge of legal issues, but also to the lack of necessary purely psychological skills or personality traits of a judge. The impartiality of a judge cannot be ensured only by legal norms, it must be the inner readiness of a judge to resist bias and prejudice. Attention is drawn to the need to develop additional programs for the psychological training of judges. The "halo principle" and lying during a trial can significantly affect the legality and validity of a court decision, and therefore it will be unfair. Psychological science has developed many techniques that can help in recognizing lies, in resolving conflicts, and also develop the ability to resist attempts to influence the participants in the process to make decisions by the judge. These methods should be studied in the course of professional training and retraining of judges, because participants in the process quite often use the features of the personality of a judge and methods of influence in order to achieve a favorable result for themselves. The provisions and conclusions of the article can serve as a basis for further scientific research on the psychology of judicial activity.