Judicial Independence: Structure, Context, Attitude

Abstract

Judicial independence and impartiality have become transnational legal norms, instantiated in many national constitutions and in the core human rights covenants to which the great majority of the nations of the world subscribe.1 Judicial independence has received specific attention from the United Nations, in part because widespread official agreement on adherence to the values of judicial independence is too often matched by disregard for judges’ independence in concrete instances.

The author thanks Professors Judith Resnik, Anja Seibert-Fohr, Jed Shugerman and Mark Tushnet for helpful comments and discussions, and thanks Amelia Royce and Savannah Lengsfelder for their able research assistance.