Are judges politically neutral?

Seeing as I'm studying this in Politics I thought I'd get your views on it.

"Judges obtain many criticisms throughout their lifetime within the judiciary system. Most of these have come from the left wing of politics. The main argument that people tend to throw at the judicial system on the neutrality of judges is the fact that a large majority of judges within the system are male, white, upper-middle class and have attended Oxbridge/Cambridge University. Does this proven fact mean that judges cannot possibly maintain the neutrality that people want within the judicial system?"

No-one can be entirely politically neutral because everyone has opinions, but it is the job of a judge to keep their rulings as law-driven only and not put personal feelings into it

Yeah, they're not robots, they're bound to put personal feelings into their ruling. I think it's fact that women get softer sentences than males, for example (someone correct me, if wrong)? In an ideal world, they would be neutral but that's probably impossible. :)

Hmm does it matter too much seeing as they don't make the decisions in a Crown Court? I'm no expert on the judicial system but it's the jury who makes their mind up and the Judge spells out to them the law and does the sentencing?

The judiciary is as neutral as it is going to get. They have to abide by whatever rules and laws they are given, but will make changes to some laws if they're not up to date or any abnormalities come about. Heck, the judiciary has been around longer than Parliament or any form of government :P They are bound to be upper-middle class and have attended univerties that are higher up in the scale, as this proves that they are some what competent because it's kinda obvious that, because they are judges, they're seen as 'higher up in the food chain', thus higher up in the class system. It's sort of how class works, born into or work yourself up, and with all that power they are bound to be seen as upper-class. A lower-class judge would not make much sense.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FlyingJesus

No-one can be entirely politically neutral because everyone has opinions, but it is the job of a judge to keep their rulings as law-driven only and not put personal feelings into it

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I totally agree :)


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