Rejection of Judges in Law of the Roman Empire

Abstract

In the article the sights of ancient Rome law that had regulated the grounds and procedure of judges rejection at various stages of the Roman Empire, comments of eminent philosophers and Roman lawyers modern scientific research are reviewed. In Roman law combined a right of the parties to reject the judge to guarantee a fair decision, the general rule on approval judge candidates by the parties. This policy led to the frequency of judges. This rule of choosing judges acted only in the early period of Roman law (I-III centuries. B.C.), were the principles of contractual litigation were inhered. The parties gave consent to the a particular person for settlement of the dispute and pledged to voluntarily submit her decision. A similar rule is contained in the current rules on arbitration courts.The grounds on which a person was considered unable to reject the judge in the early Roman law recognized in the case on the side of the plaintiff or defendant, as well as a property interest in the case.Parties may refer to these circumstances, but do not have to motivate them. In the later period of Roman law grounds for disqualification of a judge has been extended and reduced to any circumstances that raise doubts about his impartiality. However unmotivated rejections are no longer allowed. Such an approach to the disqualification of a judge actually used in the current criminal procedural law.