Keywords
conscience
conflict
axiology
constitutional crisis
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Abstract
The subject of this paper is a philosophical-legal analysis of the concept of ‘judicial conscience’, recently a popular topic in public discourse. The author proposes a broad understanding of the term, and distinguishes four different sources of this conscience: i) a judge’s worldview, which most often has a religious basis; ii) professionalism; iii) axiological conflicts internal to the legal system; and, iv) awareness of belonging to the judiciary as an independent power (the third estate). The author illustrates his analysis of judicial conscience through the example of US case-law from the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when courts adjudicated on cases involving fugitive slaves. According to the author, it is possible, on this basis, to determine some paradigmatic attitudes available to judges facing axiological conflict. In the conclusion, the author applies his reflections to the present Polish constitutional crisis.
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