Judicial reform

Judicial reform is the complete or partial political reform of a country's judiciary. Judicial reform can be connected to a law reform, constitutional amendment, prison reform, police reform or part of wider reform of the country's political system.[1]

Stated reasons for judicial reform include increasing of the independence of the judiciary, constitutionalism and separation of powers, increased speed of justice, increased fairness of justice,[2] improved impartiality,[3] and improving electoral accountability, political legitimacy and parliamentary sovereignty.[4][5]

Areas of the judicial reform often include: codification of law instead of common law, changing between an inquisitorial system and an adversarial system, changes to court administration such as judicial councils or changes to appointment procedure, establishing mandatory retirement age for judges or increasing the independence of prosecutors from the executive.

  1. ^ Peter Barenboim, Natalya Merkulova. "The 25th Anniversary of Constitutional Economics: The Russian Model and Legal Reform in Russia, in The World Rule of Law Movement and Russian Legal Reform", edited by Francis Neate and Holly Nielsen, Justitsinform, Moscow (2007).
  2. ^ Melcarne, Alessandro; Ramello, Giovanni B.; Spruk, Rok (2021). "Is justice delayed justice denied? An empirical approach". International Review of Law and Economics. 65: 105953. doi:10.1016/j.irle.2020.105953.
  3. ^ European Parliament, Council and Commission, Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, 26 October 2012
  4. ^ Feldman, David (1990). "Democracy, the Rule of Law and Judicial Review". Federal Law Review. 19 (1): 1–30. doi:10.1177/0067205X9001900101. ISSN 0067-205X.
  5. ^ "Statutory Interpretation and Legislative Supremacy". 78 Geo. L. J. 281 (1989-1990).