Appointment and career of judges in continental Europe: the rise of judicial self-government

Post-war Italy has been characterized by a dramatic growth of the power of the judiciary. However, in order to assess the expansion of judicial power in Italy we have to keep in mind that the phenomenon is not unknown in other democratic countries. Actually, in many countries we can detect a common trend towards what has been labeled as the “judicialization of politics” . Even though its roots lie in long-term social changes, judicialization in Europe has been supported by recent, and not-so-recent, changes in the political setting of democratic regimes. After the end of the Second World War, the return of democracy has been marked by a strong drive toward strengthening citizens’ rights against political majorities. Judicial review of legislation has been introduced, although in different forms, in many countries. The traditional executory conception of the role of the judge – portrayed as the mere “mouth of the law”, according to the well-known metaphor by Montesquieu – has consequently been eroded in favor of more activist definitions. Moreover, this trend has been supported by the reinforcing of judicial guarantees of independence, both internal – that is, vis-à-vis other judges – and external, toward the political branches. More recently, the expansion of judicial power seems to be related to the relative weakness of the political branches. The phenomenon has been stronger in some cases, like France, Italy and Spain, where judicial investigations on political corruption have been strongly supported by the growing independence of the media.