Abstract
Councils of the Judiciary have spread in Europe under the assumption that they contribute to a central aspect of the Rule of Law: the independence of courts and judges under their authority. However, a recent survey of the European Network of Councils of the Judiciary showed that, in some countries, there are significant groups of judges that perceive their Judicial Council as disrespectful of their autonomy. While in countries such as Denmark or Belgium judicial distrust of the Council seems to be anecdotal, in other countries such as Spain a striking 36 per cent of respondent judges had such negative views of the institution. With the aid of multi-value Qualitative Comparative Analysis, this paper explains the causes of this paradoxical phenomenon. It is argued that judges hold such negative opinions of Councils of the Judiciary as the result of the interaction between institutional, political and socio-legal conditions: the range of powers of the Councils, their control by political elites and interest groups, and the degree of judicial corruption.
Highlights
The Paradoxical Relation Between Councils of the Judiciary and Judicial IndependenceIn recent decades, Councils of the Judiciary have consolidated in Europe as one of the most wide-spread mechanisms for the governance of the judicial branch
According to Bell (2006: 27) the concept of Judicial Council was invented in France in the late 19th Century, linked to the idea of an institution designed to protect the independence of the judiciary
In the current European context, the importance of these institutions is reflected in the existence of a European Network of Councils of the Judiciary, formed by 22 members
Summary
The Paradoxical Relation Between Councils of the Judiciary and Judicial Independence. In the same vein, Beers (2012: 51) considers that these institutions are ‘designed to insulate the judiciary from overt political influence while placing the responsibility of governing and monitoring judicial behavior in the hands of independent judicial authorities’ From this perspective, judges should generally perceive Councils of the Judiciary as a guarantee for the protection of their autonomy. At the practical level, solving the research puzzle has the potential to contribute to evidence-based inputs to the debate about the improvement of our judicial systems It helped us understand which features of the Councils facilitate a smooth relationship with judges, and which concrete aspects of those institutions have a negative effect on the judicial perception of respect to their independence.
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