Over 10 years ago, Feld and Voigt (2003) introduced the first indicator for objectively meas-uring the actual independence of the judiciary and demonstrated its utility in a large cross-section of countries. The indicator has been widely used, but also criticized. This paper pre-sents more...

De jure judicial independence (JI) is the single most important predictor of de facto JI. In this paper, we describe under what conditions countries are likely to include JI in their constitutions. We describe and analyze both their original choice in this regard as well as change over time...

Many countries strive to provide independence to their judges and improve judicial quality through incorporating formal protection clauses in their constitution. This constitutional protection, I argue, has not been effective. Using a comprehensive set of indicators of constitutional protection,...