Varga Zs. András: Judicial reform – why and how? Nr. 2018/14

The main focus of the Venice Commission is on rule of law in general, but among the sub-topics, the Judiciary, judicial reforms, independence of the judiciary and of judges, role of constitutional courts, role and structure of judicial councils, administration of courts, relations among the judiciary, legislation and the executive are the most frequent issues. The cause of this distinguished attention is without doubts the role and stability of the judiciary in a democratic society governed by law.

If we look on the opinions of the Commission, we face that almost all of them gives answer to the question of how a judicial reform should be performed. But there is no answer to the question of why a need for judicial reform occurs from time to time if stability is so important. There is hardly such a reform in Western Europe, but it is more frequent in Central Europe and quite usual in the Balkans and in Eastern states. This paper tries to trace the direction of answers to this question.

The working paper is available here.