Attorney General

In most common law jurisdictions, the Attorney General or Attorney-General is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions. The term Attorney General is used to designate the chief law enforcement officer of a state or other political jurisdiction. The Attorney General is a lawyer who represents the government, prosecutes criminal cases, defends the government from lawsuits against it, and brings civil lawsuits to enforce consumer protection, antitrust, and other laws. In the Federal Government of the United States, the Attorney General is a member of the Cabinet and as head of the Department of Justice is the top law enforcement officer and lawyer for the government. The attorney general may need to be distinguished from the Solicitor General, a high Justice Department official with the responsibility of representing the government in the Supreme Court. In cases of exceptional importance, however, the Attorney General may choose to represent the government himself/herself in the Supreme Court. The individual U.S. states also have State Attorneys General with similar responsibilities. The majority of state Attorneys General are chosen by popular election, as opposed to the U.S. Attorney General who is a Presidential appointee.

Judicial Commission

The Judicial Commission of New South Wales is a statutory corporation that provides continuing education to and examines complaints made against judicial officers in New South Wales, a State of Australia. The commission is headed by the Chief Justice of New South Wales and consists of the heads of each of the major courts in New South Wales plus community representatives. The commission is the only body of its type in Australia. Similar bodies are in existence in Canada, India and the United States. The work of the commission is split into two distinct areas. The first is a conduct division which deals with complaints about judicial officers. The other area is the educative function, which provides information on sentencing information, legal development and ongoing training for judicial officers. The commission marked a significant change in the legal system in New South Wales. It restored public confidence in the judicial system which had been rocked by a serious of scandals and allegations of misconduct in the early 1980s. The commission eliminated the political process from the removal of a judge from public office. Judges were no longer subject to the whim of the government of the day in whether they could be removed from office. Instead, the commission now provides a means outside of politics for the dispassionate consideration of misconduct by judicial officers. As one present judge has suggested, the commission has actually improved and safe-guarded independence of the courts. The model for a judicial commission has received support for introduction elsewhere in Australia.