Judge's Recusal from Abortion Cases

I received the following response from Professor Gerry Whyte of Trinity College Dublin School of Law to my post regarding judges opting out of abortion cases:

"Further to your recent MOJ posting about judges recusing themselves from abortion cases involving minors, it strikes me that the rules of natural justice, and in particular the proscription against acting in one's own case, might be relevant to some (though perhaps not all) of these cases. If, as a result of extra-judicial activity, a judge acquires a reputation for being partisan on an issue, whenever that issue comes before her, she is surely obliged to recuse herself. That is certainly the legal position here in Ireland where in Dublin Well Woman Centre Ltd. v. Ireland [1995] Irish Law Reports Monthly 408, our Supreme Court held that a trial judge should have recused herself from a case involving abortion policy where, through her actions as Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women, she had previously indicated support for some liberalisation of our abortion laws. According to the Supreme Court, there was a perceived risk that one of the parties to the case could reasonably consider that the chance of a fair and independent hearing did not exist because of the trial judge's known views. There was never any suggestion, however, that the trial judge should resign from office. The focus here is on the rights of the litigants, rather than on the conscience of the trial judge, so recusal from one case is sufficient to resolve this issue."