ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a critical distinction between community values and community attitudes which helps to resolve the dilemma such cases pose for the “community values” doctrine. It explores the rationale for recent Australian judicial opinion that appellate courts ought to be responsive to “community values” in exercising their responsibility to keep the law in good repair, by which the judges mean relevant to contemporary Australia. One can accept the claim that community values and not community attitudes ought to ground judicial deliberation without believing that community values are more likely to represent moral truth than community attitudes. The most profound reason for a separation of powers with an independent, unelected judiciary is that the judges are given the backbone to stand firm against public opinion when it threatens the rule of law and community values.
