It’s almost as bad as boarding the planes of businessmen whose cases he’s going to judge, only to have the judge insist that he doesn’t need to be held to a code of ethics because he’s already ethical. Even if we took at face value the thesis according to which our worthy magistrates never sell themselves, the fact would still remain that they have a human brain, and that human brains are easily influenced.
Psychological literature teaches that travel, meals, and even gifts of negligible value predispose people in favor of the gift giver, even if they are not aware of it. Not so long ago, doctors swore loud and clear that they were not affected by the care provided by laboratories. But then the data came…
In a classic meta-analysis from 2000 that I always cite here, Ashley Wazana showed that paying for a trip to see a health professional increased the probability that he would prescribe drugs produced by the company that sponsored him by 4.5 to 10 times.
Now, if a short weekend quadruples the chances that the target of the attack will act with bias, what wonders will the transfer of 3.6 million reais per month to the family law firm not be able to do?
Unless ministers want to commit moral hara-kiri, they must not only accept a code of ethics, but also claim to have upheld it since they were children. And I fear it could be a more idealistic code like the one adopted by the German Supreme Court, which prioritizes transparency. Given the state of things here, I think we also have to draw what we can’t draw. Jet planes? Only if it’s an airborne intensive care unit.
Seminars abroad? Never. There is no legal theory that can be presented in a luxury London hotel that cannot also be presented in a stuffy room at a Brazilian public university. Supervising the actions of lawyers specializing in family law is more complicated, but you have to try.
It is difficult for poor columnists like me to defend the judiciary as an institution if its most prominent members are doing everything possible to demoralize it.
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