Reforming judicial recruitment and training in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia under EU guidance: implementation without institutionalisation?

Abstract

ABSTRACT How successful is the EU at institutionalising judicial reforms in accession countries of the Western Balkans? Does its aid and assistance deliver formal compliance and sustainable institutionalisation of new rules and processes? Using a neo-institutionalist approach, we assess the extent to which new EU-supported measures introduced to improve the recruitment and training of judges and public prosecutors in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are being implemented and institutionalised. We conclude that whilst there is clear evidence of implementation and a widely-held belief in both countries that judicial training and recruitment are improving as a consequence, the institutionalization of new rules and procedures is a far more complex process. It involves continual negotiation between different domestic actors against a backdrop of perpetual threats to undermine new formal rules.