National Judicial College of Australia

A National Curriculum for
Australian Judicial Officers

Use of this Curriculum
In This Section

A National Curriculum

Foreword

  • Quote

    “The beginning of judicial wisdom is having the humility to recognise that there will always be things which bear on the proper performance of the judicial function which one simply does not know. There will be skills one simply does not have or has not yet mastered. To recognise those human weaknesses is also the beginning of judicial education. Judicial education tethers us to human experience beyond our personal professional experience.”
    “We should never forget that we as judges are engaged with one of the greatest concerns of humankind – the cause of justice on earth. If we can improve the quality and intensity of our engagement individually and collectively, we should.”

    Justice Stephen Gageler
    Justice Stephen Gageler Keynote Address, NJCA 20th Anniversary
    08 DECEMBER 2022
  • Quote

    Australia’s judiciary needs, in the national interest, to have available to it a good range of programs of professional development” in order to “improve our skills in court… help us to adjust to changes in the law and in legal practice… help us to adjust to changes in society and in society’s expectations of a judiciary… address matters that were neglected in the past, although no longer, such as how gender and cultural differences can affect the manner in which justice is administered.”

    The Hon John Doyle
    The Hon John Doyle Sir Richard Blackburn Lecture
    2004

A National Curriculum

Elements of the National Curriculum

For more than 20 years, the National Judicial College of Australia (the NJCA) has been the national leader in judicial education and training across all Australian States and Territories. In December 2021, the Australian Law Reform Commission called for the development of a national curriculum for judicial education 1. In September 2022, the NJCA Council approved the design and development of a National Curriculum for Australian Judicial Officers (the Curriculum).

The Curriculum builds on the most recent comprehensive judicial education report on curriculum in Australia, the NJCA report prepared by Mr Christopher Roper in 2007 2. The Curriculum is based on best practice in judicial education 3, modern curricula design, identified needs of judicial officers and encourages contemporary andragogic approaches, experiential and transformative learning methods.

A National Curriculum

The Quest for Judicial Excellence

In November 2019, the NJCA published a document on ‘Attaining Judicial Excellence’, which describes the knowledge, skills, and qualities of judicial officers considered to facilitate judicial excellence in order to “assist in designing professional development programs for Australian judicial officers” 6. The Curriculum is intended to provide a framework for the development of these programs. These programs should provide judicial officers with pathways “to foster judicial capacity… which focuses on induction, orientation and transition to the [position] and then on a continuous renewal of professional education and sharpening of judicial skills” 7, and one that also enables the development of programs that address needs at different career stages.

The NJCA is the national leader in judicial education. Since our inception over twenty years ago, judges and magistrates have led the design, development, and delivery of NJCA programs. The Curriculum reflects the NJCA Council and the NJCA Program Advisory Committee members’ commitment to the five sustainable goals of judicial education and training:

Application of the Core Dimensions

Pursuit of Life Long Learning

To harness life-long judicial learning, delivered through continuation training and individual judicial learner pathways

Application of the Core Dimensions

Practical & Transformative Management Skills

Judicial education and training that supports renewed ways of working and digital skills, preparing judicial office holders for new technology, scientific advancement, innovation and changes in the way justice is administered across all jurisdictions.

Application of the Core Dimensions

Ongoing Social Context Awareness

A deeper understanding and appreciation of the social context within which decision making and judicial reasoning occurs, as well as encouraging inclusivity, diversity, engagement and respect across the judiciary as it changes

Application of the Core Dimensions

Cross-Jurisdictional Knowledge & Skills

The acquisition and improvement of cross-jurisdictional judicial skills which support and enhance the wider development of the Australian judiciary

Application of the Core Dimensions

Self-Analysis & Introspection of Attitudes & Values

An understanding and appreciation of both individual and collective judicial officer attitudes and values and how these intra-personal qualities impact upon decision making

Footnotes

  1. Without Fear or Favour: Judicial Impartiality and the Law on Bias: Australia needs to address "a lack of co-ordination and an absence of resources to plan and develop systematic judicial education programming", as was the central challenge facing Canada approximately 15 years ago. (p63).
  2. The 2007 report 'A Curriculum for Professional Development for Australian Judicial Officers', prepared by Chris Roper, AM
  3. For a complete list of references, please see Annexure A.
  4. National Standard for Professional Development for Australian Judicial Officers 2006, adopted by the NJCA and endorsed by the Council of Chief Justices, the Council of Chief Judges and the Council of Chief Magistrates, as well as the Judicial Commission of New South Wales, the Judicial College of Victoria, the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration, the Judicial Conference of Australia and the Association of Australian Magistrates. A review of impact of the Standard was undertaken in 2010 by Christopher Roper.
  5. For an additional discussion of this issue, see speech by former Chief Justice Robert French, Judicial Education – A Global Phenomenon, The International Organisation for Judicial Training, The Fourth International Conference on the Training of the Judiciary, Sydney, 26 October 2009
  6. Attaining Judicial Excellence: A Guide for the NJCA, 2019
  7. The Honourable Justice J Allsop AO, Continuing Judicial Education: the Australian experience, Judcom, Handbook for Judicial Officers – the role of judicial education
  8. Justice Stephen Gageler, Keynote Address, NJCA 20th Anniversary, 8 December 2022
  9. Australian Law Reform Commission, Without Fear or Favour: Judicial Impartiality and The Law on Bias, ALRC Report No 138 (December 2021) at [12.78]
  10. See Forge v ASIC (2006) 228 CLR 45, 80 (Gummow, Hayne and Crennan JJ) ('judicial independence refers not only to independence from the Executive, it refers to independence from other sources of influence'); Rebecca Ananian-Welsh and Jonathan Crowe (eds), Judicial Independence in Australia (Federation Press 2016); Rebecca Ananian-Welsh and George Williams, 'Judicial Independence from the Executive: A First Principles Review of the Australian Cases' (2014) 40(3) Monash University Law Review 593.
  11. Alan Rose, 'The Model Judiciary – Fitting in with Modern Government' (1999) 4 The Judicial Review 323, 326. See also Ebner v Official Trustee in Bankruptcy (2000) 205 CLR 337, [80] (Gaudron J) ('impartiality and the appearance of impartiality are so fundamental to the judicial process that they are defining features of judicial power')
  12. TCL Air Conditioner (Zhongshan) Co Ltd v Judges of the Federal Court of Australia (2013) 251 CLR 533 [27] (French CJ and Gageler J) (the judicial process involves '...observance of the rules of procedural fairness.')
  13. The Hon Stephen Gageler AC, 'Judicial Legitimacy' (2023) 97 Australian Law Journal 28, 28; and Appleby and Roberts, "Studying judges: The role of the Chief Justice, and other institutional actors", and "The Chief Justice Under Relational and Institutional Pressure," Cambridge University Press 4 May 2021
  14. See Australian Law Reform Commission, Report 89: Managing Justice (2000) 190 (noting that judicial education can create 'economies of scale and other matters relating to efficiency').
  15. See Russell v Russell (1976) 134 CLR 495, 520 (Gibbs J) ('the public administration of justice tends to maintain confidence in the integrity and independence of the courts. The fact that courts of law are held openly and not in secret is an essential aspect of their character. It distinguishes their activities from those of administrative officials, for "publicity is the authentic hallmark of judicial as distinct from administrative procedure." To require a court invariably to sit in closed court is to alter the nature of the court'); Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police v Zhao (316 ALR 378, [44] (French CJ, Hayne, Kiefel, Bell and Keane JJ) ('the rationale of the open court principle is that court proceedings should be subjected to public and professional scrutiny, and courts will not act contrary to the principle save in exceptional circumstances.')
  16. Sir Gerard Brennan, 'The State of the Judicature' (1998) 73 Australian Law Journal 33. ('If we are to be governed by the rule of law, we must have a judicature to administer it. The characteristics of that judicature reflect the functions it is charged to perform...[It] must be a competent judicature; there must be judges and practitioners who know the law and its purpose, who are alive to the connection between abstract legal principle and its practical effect, who accept and observe the limitations on judicial power and who, within those limitations, develop or assist in developing the law to answer the needs of society from time to time.')
  17. Three I's: Independence, Impartiality and Integrity : The Hon Stephen Rares, 'What is a Quality Judiciary?' (2011) 20 Journal of Judicial Administration 133, 138 ('Judicial integrity is bound up with impartiality. The public must be able to have confidence that the judge is honest in all aspects of his or her conduct. Intellectual honesty is as vital as integrity in other spheres of a judge's life.')
  18. 'Judicial Legitimacy', The Hon Justice Stephen Gageler of the High Court of Australia, a paper delivered at the 2022 AIJOA Colloquium on 7 October 2022.
  19. For more than 20 years, the National Judicial College of Australia (the NJCA) has been the national leader in judicial education and training across all Australian States and Territories. In December 2021, the Australian Law Reform Commission called for the development of a national curriculum for judicial education 1. In September 2022, the NJCA Council approved the design and development of a National Curriculum for Australian Judicial Officers (the Curriculum). The Curriculum builds on the most recent comprehensive judicial education report on curriculum in Australia, the NJCA report prepared by Mr Christopher Roper in 2007 2. The Curriculum is based on best practice in judicial education 3, modern curricula design, identified needs of judicial officers and encourages contemporary andragogic approaches, experiential and transformative learning methods.