Recusal
From LawGuru Wiki
Recusal refers to the act of abstaining from participation in a court case or in other situation when acts of judgement are to be performed, e.g., during examinations.
When a conflict of interest in a judge, procurator, investigator, or other official in a judicial setting in a court case, the person involved recuses himself/herself from it. This makes fairness of trial less likely to be questioned, if not outright compromised. Situations that may lead to recusal of a judicial officer include:
- the official being in a party of the case in question, or a close relative of one therein;
- the official having accepted gift or other treatment from one of the parties in the court case;
- the official's personal association or hatred towards any person in one of the parties;
- the official's previous role in the same case.
In academic, professional or other analogous examinations, recusal by a marker or examiner who has a teacher-student relation with a candidate is expected. This is however not always easy especially if the candidature is large. When there is a large number of candidates sitting for a given written examination, their answer scripts can be distributed to markers by automated means with softwares capable of prohibiting certain papers from being distributed to certain markers. In interview-type examinations, similar methods can be used in automated assignment of examiners to candidates to make recusal possible.
In the FIFA World Cup Football 2002, Korea won two matches, landing on the semifinals. The victories have been alleged as questionable adjudications. Under pressure from the football-watching public, referees of Asian descent were excluded from subsequent matches.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/06/cia.leak.probe/index.html On December 30, 2003 Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself from the leak probe, citing an appearance of conflict of interest. Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, is named a special prosecutor to take over the investigation of the leak of Valerie Plame as a CIA operative.
