Selecting Europe's judges : a critical review of the appointment procedures to the European courts

The past decade has witnessed change in the ways judges for the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights are selected. The leitmotif has been securing greater professional quality of the judicial candidates, and, for this purpose, both European systems have put in place various advisory panels or selection committees that are called to evaluate the aptitude of the candidates put forward by the national governments. Are these institutional reforms successful in guaranteeing greater quality of the judicial candidates? Do they increase the legitimacy of the European courts? Has the creation of these advisory panels in any way altered the institutional balance, either horizontally within the international organisations, or vertically, between the respective organisation and its Member States? Above all, has the spree of "judicial comitology" as currently practised a good way for selecting Europe's judges?These and a number of other questions are addressed in this topical volume in a comparative and interdisciplinary prospective. The book is structured into two elements: first, how the operation of the new selection mechanisms is captured and analyzed from different vantage points, and secondly, having mapped the ground, the book critically and comparatively engages with selected common themes, examining the new mechanisms with respect to values and principles such as democracy, judicial independence, transparency, representativeness, and legitimacy.

• List of Contributors p. ix
• List of Abbreviations p. xi
• Prologue: The Changing Nature of Selection Procedures to the European Courts p. 1 Michal Bobek
• 1 The Topic p. 1
• 2 The Structure p. 6
• 3 The Themes p. 17
• 4 Acknowledgements p. 23
• 1 Not Quite the Bed that Procrustes Built: Dissecting the System for Selecting Judges at the Court of Justice of the European Union p. 24 Henri de Waele
• 1 Introduction p. 24
• 2 Starring the System: The Selection of Selectors p. 28
• 3 Preparing Nominations to the EU Courts: National Pre-selection Procedures p. 32
• 4 Practical Dynamics: The Modus Operandi of the 255 Panel and the CST Committee p. 35
• 5 Position Within the Union's Institutional Architecture p. 43
• 6 The System in Action-Experiences So Far p. 44
• 7 Conclusion p. 49
• 2 Judicial Performance, Membership, and Design at the Court of Justice p. 51 Damian Chalmers
• 1 Introduction p. 51
• 2 Judicial Performance and the False Dilemma of Judicial Independence and Judicial Accountability p. 52
• 3 The Transitional Period and the Establishment of a Template for the EU Legal Order p. 56
• 4 Constitutional in Form and Functional in Substance: The Institution of an Autonomous Legal Order from 1970 Until Maastricht p. 59
• 5 Managing and Generalizing the Legal Order: From Maastricht to Lisbon p. 65
• 6 Integration and Rights: Legally Onwards from Lisbon? p. 71
• 7 Conclusion p. 75
• 3 Selecting the European Union's Judges: The Practice of the Article 255 Panel p. 78 Jean-Marc Sauvé
• 1 Objectives Pursued by Establishing the Panel p. 79
• 2 The Operation of the Panel p. 80
• 3 Evaluation of the Role of the Panel p. 82
• 4 The Real Test-How to Contribute to a Better Justice: The Experience of the Civil Service Tribunal p. 86 Georges Vandersanden
• 1 A Specific Committee for a Specific Tribunal p. 86
• 2 Questions and Reflections from the Practice p. 89
• 3 Some Final Considerations p. 92
• 5 (S)electing Judges for Strasbourg: A (Dis)appointing Process? p. 95 Koen Lemmens
• 1 Introduction p. 95
• 2 Selecting a Judge for Strasbourg: The Convention's Legal Framework and the Problematic Practice p. 97
• 3 The Council of Europe's Side of the Selection Process p. 100
• 4 The National Side of the Process p. 109
• 5 Conclusion p. 117
• 6 Selecting Strasbourg Judges: A Critique p. 120 David Kosar
• 1 Introduction p. 120
• 2 Breadth and Depth of the Problem p. 122
• 3 The Good p. 127
• 4 The Bad p. 129
• 5 The Ugly p. 149
• 6 How to Attract Top Candidates? p. 156
• 7 Conclusion p. 160
• 7 On the Democratic Legitimacy of Europe's Judges: A Principled and Comparative Reconstruction of the Selection Procedures p. 162 Armin von Bogdandy and Christoph Krenn
• 1 Introduction p. 162
• 2 Concurring Democratic Principles in the EU and the Council of Europe p. 166
• 3 Judicial Selection for the ECtHR and the CJEU: A Democratic Reconstruction p. 170
• 4 Conclusion p. 180
• 8 Can Judicial Selection Secure Judicial Independence?: Constraining State Governments in Selecting International Judges p. 181 Aida Torres Pérez
• 1 Introduction p. 181
• 2 The Independence of the International Judiciary p. 183
• 3 The Dominance of State Governments in Selecting International Judges p. 188
• 4 Mechanisms for Constraining State Governments p. 190
• 5 Concluding Remarks p. 200
• 9 How Transparent is Transparent Enough?: Balancing Access to Information Against Privacy in European Judicial Selections p. 202 Alberto Alemanno
• 1 Introduction p. 202
• 2 Comparing the Panels' Roles in Selecting Europe's Judges p. 205
• 3 How the Advisory Panels are Transforming the Selection of European Judges p. 208
• 4 The Challenge of Transparency in Judicial Selection p. 211
• 5 Towards More Transparency injudicial Selection p. 217
• 6 Conclusion: Transparency as a Recipe for Effectiveness, Legitimacy and Accountability of Judicial Selection p. 219
• 10 Spillovers in Selecting Europe's Judges: Will the Criterion of Gender Equality Make it to Luxembourg? p. 222 Bilyana Petkova
• 1 Introduction p. 222
• 2 The Concept of Legitimacy: As Elusive as an Eel p. 224
• 3 Horizontal Spillovers Between the CJEU and the ECtHR p. 229
• 4 Vertical Spillovers p. 239
• 5 Conclusion p. 242
• 11 Selection, Appointment, and Legitimacy: A Political Perspective p. 244 R. Daniel Kelemen
• 1 Introduction p. 244
• 2 Do European Courts Face a Legitimacy Crisis? p. 246
• 3 Maintaining the Democratic Pedigree p. 251
• 4 Conclusion p. 257
• 12 The Legitimization Strategies of International Judges: The Case of the European Court of Human Rights p. 259 Mikael Rask Madsen
• 1 Introduction p. 259
• 2 Overcoming the Problem of Legitimacy p. 263
• 3 The Legitimization of International Courts: The Case of the ECtHR p. 268
• 4 Conclusion: Implications for Judicial Selection to the ECtHR p. 276
• Epilogue: Searching for the European Hercules p. 279 Michal Bobek
• 1 Hercules. Or Hermes? Or Was It Pallas Athena? p. 279
• 2 The 255 Panel and the Advisory Panel: A Comparison p. 281
• 3 The 'More Precisely Explained' Criteria p. 288
• 4 The Remaining Thorn: Transparency and Control p. 294
• 5 Thou Shalt be Made in (Whose?) Image p. 298
• 6 The Paradox of Success? Open Competitions, Fewer Candidates? p. 303
• 7 Coda (Francaise) p. 306
• Select Bibliography p. 310
• Index p. 321