Friday, January 27, 2012

Daily Business Ethics Halachah #4

We are learning from Case Studies in Business Ethics by the late Rabbi Dr. Aaron Levine z"l professor of economics at Yeshiva University.

Fully recognizing that bias may be created by means other than the acceptance of money, Jewish law prohibits the judge from submitting to a bribe of words.  This is called Shochad devarim.


The parameters of Shochad devarim are very strict.  If person A does not usually say 'good morning' to judge B, and before the trial A says 'good morning' to B this is considered shochad devarim an judge B would be disqualified from hearing the case.

Question: it seems that if A wants to create a mistrial it would be very easy to do so.  All he has to do is find the judge before the trial and say hello.  he can continue to do this ad infinitum.  How does Jewish law deal with this possibility?

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