JUDICIARY INDEPENDENCE, IMPARTIALITY, THE COURT BUDGET: UNDERSTANDING OUTCOMES FROM ECONOMIC CONSTRAINTS TO COURT PERFORMANCE

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 brought fairly 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 poor performance in court functioning, outside pressure or even lead to corruptive behavior or practices. The process of preparation and execution of the court budget is one of the areas where competences of executive and court branches overlap. 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.