Conduct of Judges in their Private Lives as a Disciplinary Offense from the Perspective of the Judges

Judicial ethics is a very current topic. Even though recently it is devoted more space to the ethical questions of law than before, yet it is still insufficient. Affairs with judges occur quite frequently, and it is in the first place a task for professional public to deal with these problems. This article should therefore be a further small contribution to the discussion on judicial professional ethics. There are far greater demands on judges, even on their behaviour in private life, than on anyone else. Czech judges do not have a code of ethics, the legislation is very general and case law relating to the conduct in privacy as a disciplinary offense is very poor and old. The aim of this article was to find out how judges perceive certain specific situations, if they are able to consistently determine what is and is not a disciplinary offence. That means if the present situation is satisfactory, or whether we would need a code of ethics or other measures to help judges.