JUDICIARY INDEPENDENCE, IMPARTIALITY, THE COURT BUDGET: UNDERSTANDING OUTCOMES FROM ECONOMIC CONSTRAINTS TO COURT PERFORMANCE
Date Issued
2019
Author(s)
Shapkova Kocevska, Katerina
Abstract
Independent and impartial judicial system is one of the imperatives of
democratic societies. It is vital that the judiciary should be free from any form
of external or internal pressures and judges should rule solely on the bases of
the Constitution, laws and ratified international agreements.Independence and
impartiality of the judiciary is particularly important so that the parties and
the general public can have confidence in the court system that the judgments
will be broughtfairly and in accordance with law.
Court independence covers several aspects. Most important, courts should
be independent from other branches of government, such as executive and
legislative branch. This independence embraces that the courts should
organize their own administrative matter, such as case management, freely
and without external intervention, the judgments and decisions should
be respected and accepted by all of the branches of the government, the
judiciary has autonomous procedure about determining the standards for
judges’competences and progress etc.
One of the crucial aspects of court independence is financial independence.
Financial independence means that courts should have accesses to sufficient
grants in order to perform their tasks. Lack of resources often can lead to
poorperformancein court functioning, outside pressure or even lead to
corruptive behavior or practices. The process ofpreparation and execution
of the court budget is one of the areas where competences of executive and
court branchesoverlap. Thus, one of the most delicate forms of pressure in the
court system by the executive branch of the government is achieved through
controlling the access to resources that the courts need. In this paper we examine how judiciary budget and judges remuneration
as elements of judicial independence are relative to basic macroeconomic
indicators, such as total output of the country, public expenditures and average
annual salaries.
democratic societies. It is vital that the judiciary should be free from any form
of external or internal pressures and judges should rule solely on the bases of
the Constitution, laws and ratified international agreements.Independence and
impartiality of the judiciary is particularly important so that the parties and
the general public can have confidence in the court system that the judgments
will be broughtfairly and in accordance with law.
Court independence covers several aspects. Most important, courts should
be independent from other branches of government, such as executive and
legislative branch. This independence embraces that the courts should
organize their own administrative matter, such as case management, freely
and without external intervention, the judgments and decisions should
be respected and accepted by all of the branches of the government, the
judiciary has autonomous procedure about determining the standards for
judges’competences and progress etc.
One of the crucial aspects of court independence is financial independence.
Financial independence means that courts should have accesses to sufficient
grants in order to perform their tasks. Lack of resources often can lead to
poorperformancein court functioning, outside pressure or even lead to
corruptive behavior or practices. The process ofpreparation and execution
of the court budget is one of the areas where competences of executive and
court branchesoverlap. Thus, one of the most delicate forms of pressure in the
court system by the executive branch of the government is achieved through
controlling the access to resources that the courts need. In this paper we examine how judiciary budget and judges remuneration
as elements of judicial independence are relative to basic macroeconomic
indicators, such as total output of the country, public expenditures and average
annual salaries.
Subjects