This CLE course traces the evolution of one of the most fundamental principles of American law: the right to a neutral judge and an independent court. Beginning with the ancient maxim nemo judex in causa sua (“no one should be a judge in their own cause”), the program explores how this concept developed through English legal history — including the Magna Carta, the Act of Settlement of 1701, and seminal writings by Montesquieu and Blackstone — before becoming hardwired into the U.S. Constitution.

Through a close reading of key constitutional texts, early judicial precedents, and historical milestones such as the Judiciary Act of 1789, this program examines how structural protections for impartial adjudication became cornerstones of American constitutional design. The course concludes with a discussion of early 20th-century due process decisions addressing judicial and institutional bias — culminating in the Nuremberg "Judges’ Trial," where judicial impartiality became a matter of international justice