Dictates of Conscience and the Limits of Judicial Power in the Context of Normative Models of the Judicial Application of Law
A legal doctrine and constitutional adjudication emphasize that a judge follows the dictates of the law and conscience. The article analyses the relationship between the personal conscience of a judge and the limits of judicial power and authority not only as a legal but ethico-philosophical issue as well. Types of judicial conscience are related to three normative models of the judicial application of law connected respectively to post-positivist jurisprudence, virtue jurisprudence and personalist/natural law jurisprudence. The evolution of the state distinctive for late modernity, including changes of contemporary statutory law systems, the judicialization of politics and reconceptualization of the doctrine of separation of power, emphasize the significance of the proper limits of judicial power and authority set by the dictates of conscience.