The Trade-Offs of Judicial Governance

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter presents the main models of judicial governance in Europe, adding an important dimension of institutional design to the analysis: their level of de jure independence vis-à-vis political actors. The chapter relies on typologies and case knowledge to explain the advantages and risks of each type of approach to judicial governance. It also shows that countries based on the judicial council model have a lower average quality of democracy even if we take into account the distinction between more or less politically independent judicial councils.