Responsibilities of judges

Officials exercise exceptional authority, which in turn requires them to assume exceptional responsibilities. Their overall effectiveness, no matter what their particular duties, depends not only on their technical competence and intimate knowledge of the rules, but also on their maturity of judgement, self control, flexibility and basic fairness and integrity. Beyond this, all officials must be scrupulously careful to guard against any appearance or actuality of interest. In all questionable cases it is always wiser to acknowledge a possible source of a conflict and stand aside rather than permit suspicions to gain strength.