Judicial Independence: A European and National Perspective

This chapter gives an overview of recent developments in the protection of judicial independence at EU level and its impact on national judiciaries. The emerging EU standard of judicial independence developed by the CJEU raises new challenges in the assessment of Member State compliance—a question that can lead to nuanced responses. Non-compliance must be evaluated in a manner going beyond a theoretical approach. A legal framework governing the functioning of the judiciary can be sufficient to guarantee judicial independence in a certain legal and political context, whereas other contexts can lead to politicisation. The approach of the CJEU of taking into account all factors, including the circumstances in which certain choices have been made, instead of limiting its assessment to abstract rules, creates an opportunity to protect judicial independence not only on paper, but also through action. In the light of these developments, the second part of this chapter focuses on an analysis of the judiciary’s functioning in Lithuania in order to assess its compliance with the emerging EU standard of judicial independence. As a transparent mechanism for judicial appointments is one of the essential requirements for their independence, the example of their appointment in Lithuania is used to illustrate the complexity and combination of various factors, ultimately leading to the conclusion of the necessity of some additional safeguards in this process.