Judicial Accountability in the (Post)Transitional Context : A Story of the Czech Republic and Slovakia

This paper discusses the notion of judicial accountability and argues that judicial accountability is as important as judicial independence for fostering the rule of law and effective judicial mediation of political transition. In the subsequent case studies, it focuses on the ‘large scale’ institutional design of administration of courts in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The aim of this inquiry into the ‘large scale’ institutional design is two-fold: (1) to test whether Slovakia, a country with a strong judicial council, has performed better than the Czech Republic, a country without a judicial council, and (2) to explore how both states fare when it comes to judicial accountability in general. The structure of this paper reads as follows. Part 1 places judicial accountability to the context of transitional justice, tentatively defines the notion of judicial accountability, and discusses its relationship with judicial independence with focus on period of transition to democracy. Part 2 focuses on ‘large scale’ institutional design of administration of justice in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It starts with a brief overview of institutional models adopted in the former Czechoslovakia, a predecessor of both states, and then proceeds to the contemporary institutional design of administration of justice in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Part 3 first identifies the deficiencies and anomalies of the models of administration of justice in both countries. Subsequently, it provides assessment how both models fare when it comes to judicial accountability and draws tentative conclusions from the functioning of these models. Finally, Part 4 places the Czech and Slovak scenarios into the broader context of judicial reforms in the post-communist countries and identifies issues for further research