Abstract

Judicial Independence in the Constitutional Legal Framework: How to Resolve Collisions With Other Constitutional Values?

The contribution situates the principle of judicial independence within the constitutional legal framework. It discusses the guidelines that should be used when resolving conflicts between judicial independence and other constitutional values. Against the backdrop of the relevant European jurisprudence, it evaluates the position of the Federal Constitutional Court as to whether judicial independence constitutes an absolute guarantee or can be limited under certain conditions. On this basis, the contribution outlines how constitutional doctrine can shape such limits and how these limits can be empirically grounded. These reflections focus on accounting for the plurality of interacting values as well as for the interactions among the factors that determine the behaviour relevant for judicial independence. Regarding the doctrinal implementation of judicial independence understood as optimisation obligations, proportionality and the notion of “practical concordance” are discussed.