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Routine Activities for Judges

NCJ Number
73938
Journal
Koelner Zeitschrift fuer Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie Volume: 30 Issue: 2 Dated: (1978) Pages: 305-320
Author(s)
H A Hesse
Date Published
1978
Length
16 pages
Annotation
The daily routine of the West German judge is analyzed as a potential subject of study in a reformed law curriculum integrating theory with practice.
Abstract
The routine of the professional judge is defined as the competence gained in the daily performance of recurring professional duties such as processing court information, working with legal norms, and communicating results to relevant individuals. Routine provides normed structures for dealing with work, thus improving work efficiency. Rather than stifling innovative efforts, routine may in some cases be the necessary prerequisite for intensive, concentrated work in individual cases. However, innovative efforts become increasingly unlikely when routine is used consciously as a means of improving work efficiency, when the routine is internalized, and when the group which uses the routine grows. Routine can be considered as contributing to system efficiency, to the stabilization of an individual judge's work life and to his capability of dealing with cases. In contrast, routine is less positive from the standpoint of the person who is the object of the system's decisions and who prefers that all possibilities be examined in his or her individual case. Learning the routine of daily professional life in such a way as to leave open the possbility of innovation requires a great deal of effort on the part of students, and they cannot enjoy the results until after they are well established in their professions. Furthermore, the instructors in practical training cannot realistically be expected to take the enormous amount of time needed to make the relationship of routine and exceptions to routine clear using the example of their own work. Beginners will thus tend to conform to the routines that predominate in practice without criticism or attempts at variation. Training in social sciences sensitizes students to special elements to be considered in individual cases, but criteria for helping students distinguish plain routine from open-minded routine have yet to be developed. The need for empirical clarification of the routine portion of professional practice and for development of new concepts is emphasized. Notes are supplied.

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