Judging the Judges: The State of Judicial Reform in Eastern Europe on the Eve of Accession

Abstract

On May 1, 2004, ten new countries joined the European Union (EU), bringing the number of members from fifteen to a total of twenty-five. This expansion was the largest expansion ever undertaken by the EU, raising serious questions regarding the integration of different cultures, economies, political systems, and legal regimes into a very Westernized EU. These issues are further complicated by the fact that eight of the ten accession countries, namely Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, are all Eastern European nations that have only been independent states since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. Still coping with the transition from socialism to capitalism and from oppression to democracy, each of these nations encountered unique challenges as they approached the date of formal EU accession.