2024
Purging the Judiciary After a Transition: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
ŠIPULOVÁ, Katarína a David KOSAŘZákladní údaje
Originální název
Purging the Judiciary After a Transition: Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Autoři
Vydání
Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, 2024, 1876-4045
Další údaje
Jazyk
angličtina
Typ výsledku
Článek v odborném periodiku
Obor
50501 Law
Stát vydavatele
Nizozemské království
Utajení
není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství
Odkazy
Impakt faktor
Impact factor: 2.200 v roce 2022
Organizační jednotka
Právnická fakulta
Klíčová slova anglicky
lustration; judges; courts; judicial purges; transition; Czech Republic
Štítky
Příznaky
Mezinárodní význam, Recenzováno
Změněno: 17. 10. 2024 16:15, Mgr. Petra Georgala
Anotace
V originále
Udges play a key role in the implementation of transitional justice mechanisms. Yet, less attention has been paid so far to the question of how to address their collaboration with non-democratic regimes. In theory, judges can be subjected to virtually all transitional justice mechanisms ranging from criminal prosecution and lustration to truth-seeking, or even amnesties. However, we show in a case study of Czechia that these mechanisms are not well equipped to address the complicity of judges in past crimes for three reasons: (1) judges usually play different roles in past crimes from political elites, (2) the principles of the separation of powers and judicial independence preclude the easy replacement of judges, and (3) pragmatic exigencies, such as the shortage of lawyers who are not tainted by cooperation with the previous regime, further complicate the renewal of the bench. Nevertheless, we argue that the lack of recognition of the role judges have played in non-democratic regimes is dangerous, as it may negatively affect public confidence in the judiciary and taint its legitimacy. Examples from Hungary, Poland and Romania, moreover, show that populist leaders are tempted to abuse the transitional justice rhetoric use the failure to deal with the past of judges as a justification for their court-curbing practices. Post-transition purges are therefore stuck between a rock (interfering in judicial independence and practical exigencies) and a hard place (mental dependence of the judiciary on the previous regime, low public trust in courts). When the democratic opposition defeats the populist leader, such as in Poland in 2023, it unfortunately faces the same dilemma. Thus, the Czech way of dealing with the past within the judiciary in transition from communism to democracy (transition 1.0) provides important insights also for today’s undoing of populist judicial reforms and transition from authoritarian populism to democracy (transition 2.0).
Návaznosti
101002660, interní kód MU |
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