Let public pick judges, says trust

The Sensible Sentencing Trust is to campaign for judges to be elected rather than appointed, an idea the attorney-general has called "unthinkable nonsense".

Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said the policy had been raised during the trust's annual conference in Taupo yesterday.

"We need to make judges more accountable, and the only way that can be achieved is to move towards a system where judges are elected," McVicar said.

But Attorney-General Chris Finlayson said, "The prospect of electing judges is unthinkable nonsense."

He said the United States experience showed that such a move would open the door to corruption of the judiciary.

Andrew Ladley, adjunct professor at Victoria University, said the entire justice system would suffer a "revolt of the senses" and cease to function if the policy was adopted.

Even lawyer Stephen Franks, who attended the conference, wasn't keen: "I wouldn't favour it myself."