-My own farewell funeral concert
In countries – especially those which strive to be, or remain, democracies – which are governed by the rule of law, judges must be considered among the most vital officials of those societies. We local youngsters used to be in awe at judges/lawyers and doctors.
Let’s broadly define a judge to be: “a trained official qualified and authorised to decide questions, disputes, cases brought before a Court (of Law)”. Many dictionary definitions also allude to one considering and delivering an “authoritative opinion”. I suspect that “authoritative” is derived from legal authorities.
“Mortals” in my lead caption is used to remind all concerned or interested that judges are, like all of us, human. They eat, pray, get ill, have their own cultural preferences and are all voters at elections time. (I understand many judges reject being active members of political parties, even though a few might have been “spawned” within them.)