Standards of judgement (8)
I believe the answer is:
criteria
'standards of judgement' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
This is the entire clue.
(Other definitions for criteria that I've seen before include "Benchmarks" , "Tests, yardsticks" , "Standards, yardsticks" , "Standards on which to base judgments" , "Erratic, I embrace standards" .)