Maintaining The Public Trust

New law clerks: welcome to the federal court system. Career clerks: thank you for your continued service. During your clerkship, you will provide valuable assistance as your judge resolves disputes that are of great importance to the parties, and often to the public. The parties and the public accept judges' rulings because they trust the system to be fair and impartial. Maintaining this trust is crucial to the continued success of our courts. That's why, although you have many responsibilities that demand your attention, you must never lose sight of your ethical obligations. You need to become familiar with the Code of Conduct for Judicial Employees, which has five canons. In brief, the canons provide that you should - uphold the independence and integrity of the judiciary and of your office; - avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities; - adhere to appropriate standards in performing your duties; - avoid conflict with official duties and the appearance of impropriety in all...

The Josephson Institute of Ethics has developed five core principles that are keys to success in all spheres of public service. This volume examines each in turn: public interest, independent objective judgment, public accountability, democratic leadership, and responsibility and fitness for office.

New law clerks: welcome to the federal court system. Career clerks: thank you for your continued service. During your clerkship, you will provide valuable assistance as your judge resolves disputes that are of great importance to the parties, and often to the public. The parties and the public accept judges' rulings because they trust the system to be fair and impartial. Maintaining this trust is crucial to the continued success of our courts. That's why, although you have many responsibilities that demand your attention, you must never lose sight of your ethical obligations. You need to become familiar with the Code of Conduct for Judicial Employees, which has five canons. In brief, the canons provide that you should - uphold the independence and integrity of the judiciary and of your office - avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all activities - adhere to appropriate standards in performing your duties; - avoid conflict with official duties and the appearance of impropriety in all outside activities - refrain from inappropriate political activities Scrupulously follow these canons and the other rules that govern your conduct. Do not assume that good intentions are enough. It is not enough to simply learn and follow the Code of Conduct and other related ethics rules, however. You also need to familiarize yourself with and follow your judge's ethical guidelines. These guidelines may differ from chambers to chambers. Your judge may impose restrictions that go beyond the Code. Although many of your obligations are the same as those of other federal judicial employees, certain restrictions are more stringent because of your special position in relation to the judge.

Conflicts of interest in both the public and private sectors have become a major matter of public concern world-wide. The OECD Guidelines define a conflict of interest as occurring when a public official has private-capacity interests which could improperly influence the performance of their official duties and responsibilities. However, identifying a specific conflict of interest in practice can be difficult. And resolving the conflicting interests appropriately in a particular case is something that most people find even more challenging. The Toolkit focuses on specific techniques, resources and strategies for: Identifying, managing and preventing conflict-of-interest situations more effectively; and Increasing integrity in official decision-making, which might be compromised by a conflict of interest. This Toolkit provides non-technical, practical help to enable officials to recognise problematic situations and help them to ensure that integrity and reputation are not compromised. The tools themselves are provided in generic form. They are based on examples of sound conflict-of-interest policy and practice drawn from various OECD member and non-member countries. They have been designed for adaptation to suit countries with different legal and administrative systems. FURTHER READING: Managing Conflict of Interest in the Public Service: OECD Guidelines and Country Experiences

Amid increasing concern for patient safety and the shutdown of prominent research operations, the need to improve protections for individuals who volunteer to participate in research has become critical. Preserving Public Trust: Accreditation and Human Research Participant Protection Programs considers the possible impact of creating an accreditation system to raise the performance of local protection mechanisms. In the United States, the system for human research participant protections has centered on the Institutional Review Board (IRB); however, this report envisions a broader system with multiple functional elements. In this context, two draft sets of accreditation standards are reviewed (authored by Public Responsibility in Medicine & Research and the National Committee for Quality Assurance) for their specific content in core areas, as well as their objectivity and validity as measurement tools. The recommendations in the report support the concept of accreditation as a quality improvement strategy, suggesting that the model should be initially pursued through pilot testing of the proposed accreditation programs.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.