Academic

Seibert-Fohr on the Rule of Law & Independent Courts & Comparative Constitutionalism

By Lawrence Solum

Anja Seibert-Fohr (Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences - Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) has posted European Comparatives Perspective on the Rule of Law and Independent Courts (CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE RULE OF LAW. PROCEEDINGS OF THE 6TH VIENNA WORKSHOP ON INTERNATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, Harald Eberhard, Christina Binder, Konrad Lachmayer, Gregor Ribarov & Gerhard Thallinger, eds., 2010, Facultas, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This paper focuses on a specific aspect of the rule of law - judicial independence - and shows how this concept is evolving over time by way of an interesting interaction among the different levels of legal order. The concept of judicial independence is particularly apt for this purpose since its guarantee is formally recognized not only in domestic constitutional law but also in European and international law. Nevertheless, there is no static notion of judicial independence, neither in international nor in domestic law. Rather it is a functional concept which needs to respond to new developments and contemporary questions. In this undertaking the different levels of the legal order which are confronted with common challenges can learn from each other. Unfortunately however, in the current debate about allegedly international standards this insight is fading with sometimes strange results. This paper illustrates this development and argues that instead in the future conceptualization of judicial independence in Europe, more attention should be given to comparative constitutional analysis.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on November 11, 2010 (boomark / email).