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"Foreword" [2016] ELECD 1548; in Devlin, Richard; Dodek, Adam (eds), "Regulating Judges" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) ix

Book Title: Regulating Judges

Editor(s): Devlin, Richard; Dodek, Adam

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781786430786

Section Title: Foreword

Number of pages: 2

Extract:

Foreword
The role of judges and of the judiciary is central to the relationship
between the state and its citizenry. This is true both in democratic and
authoritarian societies. In the former, the rule of law is the dominant force
that protects the ruled from the rulers. In the latter, it is a more tenuous
relationship in which the judiciary is an arm of the executive. Crucial to
all systems of government is the manner in which the judiciary is regulated
either by outside bodies or by self-regulation. There are as many systems
for the regulation of judges as there are states and, indeed, in federal
systems there are many different systems that operate within the same
country.
It is too infrequently recognized that to appreciate and understand one's
own system of laws one needs to examine and study others. That is the
value of comparative jurisprudence. In this book, Devlin and Dodek have
succeeded admirably in developing a tool that facilitates a comparison of
the ways in which different states across continents and legal systems seek
to regulate judges and the judiciary. That tool is a `pyramid', the sides of
which consist of a number of variables. As they state in their Introduction,
they `provide for possible descriptions, analyses, assessments, critiques
and even potential reforms of discrete judiciaries'. This pyramid has four
sides, namely values, processes, resources and outcomes. As the editors
correctly point out, the consideration of these elements provides for a
more meaningful analysis than ...