C 2023

Court-Unpacking: A Preliminary Inquiry

KOSAŘ, David and Katarína ŠIPULOVÁ

Basic information

Original name

Court-Unpacking: A Preliminary Inquiry

Authors

KOSAŘ, David and Katarína ŠIPULOVÁ

Edition

320. vyd. Baden-Baden, Transition 2.0 Re-establishing Constitutional Democracy in EU Member States, p. 323-360, 38 pp. 2023

Publisher

Co. KG

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Chapter(s) of a specialized book

Country of publisher

Germany

Confidentiality degree

is not subject to a state or trade secret

Publication form

electronic version available online

References:

Organization

Právnická fakulta – Repository – Repository

ISBN

978-3-7560-0079-1

Keywords in English

unpacking; court-packing; judicial independence; courts; judges

Links

101002660, interní kód Repo.
Changed: 5/4/2024 04:22, RNDr. Daniel Jakubík

Abstract

V originále

The proliferation of court-packing wars across different political regimes has recently stirred up a lot of controversy. As one of the techniques allowing executive actors swiftly to capture the courts, align them with their own political preferences or even weaponise them against their opponents, court-packing is particularly tempting for both democratic and autocratic leaders. The legitimacy of court-packing and potential safeguards against this method have therefore triggered vibrant academic debate. Yet, much less attention has been paid to a vexing question: what to do with packed courts once the political actors who staffed them with loyal or ideologically aligned judges lose power. Can courts be unpacked? If so, how? Is unpacking always legitimate or does it depend on the legitimacy of previous court-packing? Should the content of decision-making, judicial behaviour or the personal independence and integrity of packed judges be considered in a normative assessment of unpacking? And what role does eventual redress for removed judges play in these considerations? Addressing these questions, this chapter analyses the normative underpinnings of unpacking in the broader context of democratic decay and abusive constitutionalism

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