POLI 330 Lecture 14: Lecture 14.docx

• School: McGill University
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLI 330
• Professor: Maria Popova

Document Summary

Judicial independence: requires us to identify who the judiciary is independent from, we can conceptualize judicial independence in terms of different types of. Institutional autonomy of the judiciary from other state institutions. Refers to a particular institutional set up vis- -vis to the other institutions that have some relationship with the courts. Usually the institutional definition looks at judicial control over judicial careers, judicial control over its own budget, etc: features of a more independent judiciary in institutional terms. Judicial politics literature hasn"t abandoned judicial independence institutionally but it shouldn"t be overemphasized: behavioural judicial independence. The unit of analysis is the individual judge instead of the institutions of the judiciary. Scholars studying judicial independence in the behavioural tradition look at how judges think, perceive themselves and how they adjudicate cases. When judges can act on their own interpretation of the law and the case, they are seen as behaviourally independent.