Final Report Released

Today the Australian Law Reform Commission report, Without Fear or Favour: Judicial Impartiality and the Law on Bias (Report 138, 2021) was tabled in Parliament by the Attorney-General of Australia, the Hon Mark Dreyfus KC.

The report makes 14 recommendations to promote and protect judicial impartiality and public confidence in the Commonwealth judiciary.

Further Resources

Consultation Paper

Background Papers

The ALRC has published Background Papers which aim to provide a high-level overview of key principles and research on topics of relevance to the Judicial Impartiality Inquiry.

• The Law on Judicial Bias: A Primer (JI1)
• Recusal and Self-Disqualification (JI2)
• The Federal Judiciary – the Inquiry in Context (JI3)
• Conceptions of Judicial Impartiality in Theory and Practice (JI4)
• Ethics, Professional Development, and Accountability (JI5)
• Cognitive and Social Biases in Judicial Decision-Making (JI6)
• The Fair-Minded Observer and its Critics (JI7)

Terms of Reference

Charisteas v Charisteas 

Judicial Impartiality Webinars

• Judicial Impartiality Q&A: Exploring Viewpoints Webinar
• Public Confidence, Apprehended Bias, and the Modern Federal Judiciary