The annals of justice abound in the foibles of those supposed to deliver it, with sex, drink and insanity among the factors that have shaped rulings across continents and epochs. But for how much longer?

Aspiring judges in Europe are being told to undergo psychological tests in an attempt to weed out mavericks, alcoholics and other characters deemed inappropriate. The latest country to force psychometrics on a reluctant judiciary is France, and the result is uproar. Judges are furious at the questionnaire, designed to determine how neurotic, extrovert, agreeable and conscientious they are. They are also livid at a plan to ask psychologists to measure their intelligence.

“We don’t think these tests are reliable at all,” said Ollivier Joulain, a magistrate in southwest France. “They are supposed to be able to eliminate 50 per cent of those who are unsuitable for the role, but I could do the same thing by tossing a coin.”

The programme was approved this week by the National College for Magistrates, where French trainee judges and prosecutors spend three years before heading into courtrooms.

The college has thousands of applicants, but only a few dozen are selected for a course that leads to the coveted titles of Monsieur le Juge or Madame la Juge.

“The selection process was based on technical law exams dating from 1958,” said Eric Bramat, head of the director’s office at the college. “Now we want to focus more on human qualities. A judge must be able to listen, to exchange, to communicate, to get people to agree, to take a decision, to manage, to show authority. That is the sort of profile we are looking for.”

The personality tests will be introduced into the entrance examination, which also features papers on French and European Union law and the English language. There will be a group test in which applicants will have to play a role under the eye of a psychologist. There will also be a written test based on an American model known as the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and involving 240 questions covering traits that range from anxiety to fantasy and self-discipline.

Traditional selection methods have often failed to spot eccentricities. In one case a judge was downgraded after photographing young women in his courtroom, where he said the Renaissance architecture provided an ideal setting. A second was suspended after stealing a credit card to pay for prostitutes. A third was struck off when it emerged that he was schizophrenic. Critics say that the tests could eliminate the independent-minded personalities among France’s best judges.

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