Introduction

Any proposal to extend the domain of adjudication can reasonably be met with the following good faith question: why? What is valuable about doing that, and about legal accountability more generally? A traditional answer suggests that it is required to protect the rule of law, or prevent the abuse of power, or protect our rights.

In this essay, I set out an account of the main instrumental benefits of legal accountability, and defend that account against some common objections. It is intended to provide a general answer to the question, one that is susceptible of proof or falsification in terms that it is hoped will attain some measure of general agreement. That is, it is hoped that if a reader disagrees with any stated benefit, we will agree on what evidence would count as proof or disproof of the assertion. In Section B, I explain that my approach to evaluating the question is instrumentalist. On this view, legal accountability can be seen as a means for achieving ends, and not something to be assessed primarily in terms of its intrinsic value. There is also a list of what I consider to be the essential attributes of legal accountability, and these attributes help us to understand why it is that legal accountability has some of the benefits that it does. In Section C, I set out a list of ten prima facie benefits. I argue there that legal accountability generates ten features that have instrumental value: focus, principled reasoning, constitutional authority, independence and impartiality, rule interpretation competence, procedural fairness competence, par­ticipation, expressiveness, publicity, and inter-institutional collaboration. I defend the claim that legal accountability possesses these features, and that these features produce (or can produce) valuable ends, and I defend both types of claims against some common objections. The entire structure of the argument is in prima facie terms. I accept that the final question of the value of legal accountability is to be determined in particular contexts. It is hoped that identifying a general list of benefits will assist the task of evaluating the case for legal accountability in specific jurisdictions on particular issues.

B.