Judicial Self‐Governance Index: Towards better understanding of the role of judges in governing the judiciary

Abstract

The aim of this article is to introduce a novel view on how to evaluate the share of power held by judges in judicial governance. Its contribution to court administration and the regulation of judges is three-fold. First, it provides a novel empirically tested conceptualization of judicial governance that includes 60 competences grouped into eight dimensions (ranging from selection and education of judges to case allocation and publication of judicial decisions). Second, it proposes a new Judicial Self-Governance (JSG) Index that measures how much power domestic judges hold in these eight dimensions of judicial governance. Third, by applying the JSG Index to the longitudinal data for Germany, Italy, Czechia, and Slovakia this article demonstrates that the Judicial Council model is not the only institutional model of judicial governance leading to the empowerment of judges. This means that judges can hold many powers without the existence of judicial councils and even in the Ministry of Justice model.

Educational dimension of judicial self-governance in the exercise of the judicial independence principle: The case of Serbia in the European integration process

“…Владавина права је вредност на којој почива Европска унија (у даљем тексту: ЕУ) (Knežević Bojović, Ćorić, 2022, str. 52) и представља један од основних критеријума за приступање ЕУ (Knežević Bojović, Ćorić, 2022, 2023. Стога је стална тежња ка испуњењу постулата владавине права од посебног значаја за Србију, која је држава кандидат за приступање ЕУ.…”

“…The principle of the rule of law is entrenched in the very bases of the United Nations (hereinafter: the UN) (The Rule of Law and Transitional Justice in Conflict and Post-Conflict Societies: Report of the Secretary General, 2004, p. 4). The rule of law is a value on which the European Union (hereinafter: the EU) is founded (Knežević Bojović, Ćorić, 2022, p. 52) and represents one of the basic criteria for EU accession (Knežević Bojović, Ćorić, 2022, 2023. That is why a constant aspiration towards fulfilling the postulates of the rule of law is of particular importance for Serbia as a candidate state for EU accession.…”

(No) Ghost in the Shell: The Role of Values Internalization in Judicial Empowerment in Slovakia

“…As was shown in Section II, the Slovak judiciary enjoys a considerable amount of self-governance, with the judge-dominated Judicial Council playing a central role in the system. 117 This model is a direct result of supranational recommendations Slovakia followed at the turn of the millennium, in the hope of insulating the judiciary from political interferences by transferring key competences, particularly over judicial careers, into the hands of the judges themselves. As a consequence, Slovak judges are very sensitive to political interference with the judicial branch, yet, as we have shown, lack sensitivity to other possible sources of interference or pressure.…”