Judicial Education as a Support to Judicial Independence and Major Justice Reform

The theme of judicial education is not foreign to the nature of contemporary constitutional democracies. As we are going to see, judicial independence is a key element of these political regimes and judicial education is related to the crucial role the human factor plays in the administration of justice. From this point of view there is no radical differences between democracies, for example mature, consolidating or transitional democratic regimes. Of course, different is the context in which these regimes operate: available resources are different; the strength of the democratic culture – and therefore the attachment to the values of constitutionalism – can vary; often, deep variations exist in the so-called support structure, that is the network of rights-advocacy lawyers, rights-advocacy organizations and sources of financing which plays a so important part in supporting the working of the judicial process. However, all these regimes share the same fundamental aim: building a system of government accountable toward the political community and, at the same time, restraining the exercise of political power, even that of the majority. Even though the success in pursuing these goals can vary, all democratic regimes are due to move in the same direction.