One thing that deeply impressed me when reading Robert van Gulik's "Judge Dee mysteries" was that the judges were required to study (and write!) a lot of poetry and literature as well, which IMO increases their emotional intelligence and make them more sympathetic with the populace they are governing and increase their sense of justice without going Hitler-mode.

(The irony of the fact that he was describing a society that didn't have a problem treating women as sub-humans doesn't escape me, of course. I'd argue that outside of that however, the system described by Robert van Gulik had advantages.)