Judicial Independence and the Rule of Law in Democratic Governance: An International Legal Perspective
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54518/ldi.2.2.2024.1287Keywords:
Judicial Independence, Rule Of Law, Democratic Governance, Fair Trial, Judicial Accountability, International LawAbstract
Judicial independence is a fundamental element of democratic governance because it ensures impartial justice, protects human rights, and upholds the rule of law. This study examines the relationship between judicial independence and democratic governance through a qualitative Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and doctrinal analysis of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The findings indicate that independent judicial institutions strengthen democratic governance by promoting accountability, protecting fundamental rights, maintaining constitutional order, and supporting democratic resilience. The study further reveals that Articles 8, 10, and 11 of the UDHR and Articles 2(3) and 14 of the ICCPR provide essential international legal standards for safeguarding judicial autonomy and fair trial rights. However, challenges such as political interference, democratic backsliding, judicial capture, and declining public trust continue to threaten judicial independence. The study concludes that protecting judicial independence remains essential for sustaining democratic governance and the rule of law.
References
Castillo-Ortiz, P. (2023). Judicial governance and democracy in Europe (p. 91). Springer Nature.
Clooney, A., & Webb, P. (Eds.). (2021). The right to a fair trial under Article 14 of the ICCPR: Travaux préparatoires. Oxford University Press.
Dixon, R. (2023). Responsive judicial review: Democracy and dysfunction in the modern age. Oxford University Press.
Epperly, B. (2019). The political foundations of judicial independence in dictatorship and democracy. Oxford University Press.
Gora, A., & De Wilde, P. (2022). The essence of democratic backsliding in the European Union: Deliberation and rule of law. Journal of European Public Policy, 29(3), 342–362.
Harvey, C. J. (2022). Can courts in nondemocracies deter election fraud? De jure judicial independence, political competition, and election integrity. American Political Science Review, 116(4), 1325–1339.
Issacharoff, S. (2019). Judicial review in troubled times: Stabilizing democracy in a second-best world. North Carolina Law Review, 98(1), 1–44.
Kmezić, M. (2021). Rule of law and democracy in the Western Balkans: Addressing the gap between policies and practice. In Illiberal Politics in Southeast Europe (pp. 177–192). Routledge.
Linnenluecke, M. K., Marrone, M., & Singh, A. K. (2020). Conducting systematic literature reviews and bibliometric analyses. Australian Journal of Management, 45(2), 175–194.
Merkel, W. (2023). What is democratic resilience and how can we strengthen it. Policy Brief, 169, 1–15.
Müller, J. W. (2021). Democracy rules. Penguin UK.
Nadeem, S. A., Raza, M. M., & Habib, R. I. (2023). Ascribing the right of fair trial in the context of international human rights law. Pakistan Research Journal of Social Sciences, 2(3).
Ozoráková, L. (2021). The right to a fair trial at international criminal courts and tribunals: Are the standards of international criminal proceedings fair enough? Pécs Journal of International and European Law.
Page, M. J., McKenzie, J. E., Bossuyt, P. M., Boutron, I., Hoffmann, T. C., Mulrow, C. D., Shamseer, L., Tetzlaff, J. M., Akl, E. A., Brennan, S. E., Chou, R., Glanville, J., Grimshaw, J. M., Hróbjartsson, A., Lalu, M. M., Li, T., Loder, E. W., Mayo-Wilson, E., McDonald, S., ... Moher, D. (2021). The PRISMA 2020 statement: An updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. BMJ, 372, n71.
Papadopoulos, Y. (2023). Understanding accountability in democratic governance. Cambridge University Press.
Pech, L., & Kochenov, D. V. (2021). Respect for the rule of law in the case law of the European Court of Justice: A casebook overview of key judgments since the Portuguese Judges case. SIEPS.
Perilli, L. (2021). Judicial independence and access to justice. Turkey Tribunal.
Rahman, M. H. (2020). The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) as foundation of international human rights law.
Redish, M. H. (2019). Pragmatic formalism, separation of powers, and the need to revisit the nondelegation doctrine. Loyola University Chicago Law Journal, 51(2), 363–397.
Shelton, D. (2023). Article 10—The right to a fair trial. In The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (pp. 242–269). Brill Nijhoff.
Sillen, J. (2019). The concept of internal judicial independence in the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. European Constitutional Law Review, 15(1), 104–133.
Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333–339.
Spano, R. (2021). The rule of law as the lodestar of the European Convention on Human Rights: The Strasbourg Court and the independence of the judiciary. European Law Journal, 27(1–3), 211–227.
Şener, M. B. (2021). A review of the meaning and importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Uluslararası Politik Araştırmalar Dergisi, 7(3), 15–25.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Irham Farid Hidayat
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
