Management Skills as a Criterion for Judicial Performance Evaluation

Abstract

This article proposes two measures of judicial management skills,which may be used in an Australian pilot programme for judicialperformance evaluation. The measures are evaluated by a nationalsurvey of barristers' management skill ratings of Supreme and FederalCourt judges. Barristers who responded to the survey instrumentthought the proposed measures of judicial management skills wereimportant measures of judicial performance. The measures have a highlevel of internal consistency.The article also examines aspects of judicial management skills as ameasure of judicial performance. These aspects include identifyingmeasures of judicial management skills; whether judicial managementskills differ between trial and appellate judges; whether judicialgender affects management skills; whether judicial management skillsdeteriorate with age or experience; and whether older judges treatjunior barristers differently.