Book launch: David Kosař, Perils of Judicial Self-Government in Transitional Societies
Constitutionalism and Politics Working Group has the pleasure to invite you to the book launch
Perils of Judicial Self-Government in Transitional Societies (Cambridge University Press 2017)
by David Kosař, Masarykova Univerzita v Brně, Czech Republic
Thursday, 26 October 2017 – at 3:15pm, Sala del Consiglio, Villa Salviati
Chair: Prof. Gábor Halmai (EUI) and Discussant: Dr Anna Wallerman (Max Weber Fellow, EUI)
Book description
‘Judicial councils and other judicial self-government bodies have become a worldwide phenomenon. Democracies are increasingly turning to them to insulate the judiciary from the daily politics, enhance independence and ensure judicial accountability. This book investigates the different forms of accountability and the taxonomy of mechanisms of control to determine a best practice methodology. The author expertly provides a meticulous analysis, using over 800 case studies from the Czech and Slovak disciplinary courts from 1993 to 2010 and creates a systematic framework that can be applied to future cases.’
Review
‘Kosař … relies on more than 800 case studies from the Czech and Slovak disciplinary courts from 1993 to 2010 to analyze differing forms of accountability of the least accountable branch of government: the judiciary. The volume’s first part lays the theoretical framework that informs the empirical analysis presented in chapters 4 to 7. It defines judicial accountability, describes its mechanisms, and overviews the role of judicial councils in insulating the judiciary from politics, enhancing its independence, and thus ensuring judicial accountability. Chapter 4 comments on the methodology of the empirical research, explaining case selection and case analysis, whereas chapters 5 to 7 compare cases from the Czech and Slovak Republics. The final chapter serves as a conclusion, arguing that the judicial council increases judicial autonomy without necessarily improving the independence of individual judges. Recommended.’
For further information, please refer to seminars and events webpage.