Judicial Independence Under Threat

Judicial independence is increasingly under threat. The rise of populism risks undermining the separation of powers, with some politicians, media outlets and members of the public taking aim at judges, labelling them as part of the establishment and the elite, the 'enemies of the people'. Judicial Independence Under Threat seeks to situate these contemporary challenges to judicial independence in their proper legal, philosophical, political and historical contexts. It brings academic scholars from a variety of disciplines together with judges, politicians and legal professionals and asks what core shared values of our legal and political systems judicial independence seeks to protect, and how threats to that independence can be protected against. What can we learn from comparative, historical, political, philosophical, and legal insights on the separation of powers, and what means can we discover to prevent against challenges to the independence of judges in times of crisis?

Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos, Goldsmiths, University of London,Yvonne McDermott, Swansea University

Dimitrios Giannoulopoulos holds the Inaugural Chair in Law, and is the Head of the Department of Law, at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is an Academic Bencher of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. Dimitrios gained his PhD at the Sorbonne Law School (Paris I). He studied Law at the University of Athens, and holds postgraduate degrees in criminal law and criminal justice from the Universities of Athens, Aix-Marseille and Brunel. He has published widely on suspects' rights, evidence obtained in violation of the right to privacy and the application of ECHR jurisprudence in the domestic criminal process.


Yvonne McDermott is a Professor of Law at Swansea University. She was, from 2018-2021, Principal Investigator on the OSR4Rights project, a multi-disciplinary project that examines how open source research has transformed the landscape of human rights fact-finding, funded by the ESRC. From 2022-2027, she will lead TRUE, a European Research Council Starting Grant-funded project which examines the impact of the rise of deepfakes on trust in user-generated evidence of human rights violations. She is Legal Advisor to the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and an Associate Academic Fellow of the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple.

Foreword by the Right Hon. the Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore
Introduction: The Judiciary Under Attack (and Why It Matters to Safeguard Judicial Independence), DIMITRIOS GIANNOULOPOULOS AND YVONNE MCDERMOTT
Part I: Identifying and Understanding Threats to Judicial Independence
1. 'Enemies of the People': Populism's Threat to Independent Judiciaries, JAN-WERNER MÜLLER
2. The Rule of Law Across the World: A System in Crisis?, SCHONA JOLLY QC
3. Judicial Independence Under Threat: What is the Matter with Our Politicians?, DOMINIC GRIEVE QC
4. Understanding Judicial Independence in the Age of Outrage, MARTINA Y. FEILZER
5. 'Enemies of the People': Article 50, the Press and Anti-Juridicalism, JULIAN PETLEY
Part II: Judicial Independence: International and Historical Perspectives
6. Judicial Independence and Two Visions of American Democracy, DAVID ALAN SKLANSKY
7. Is There a French Habeas Corpus? Thinking About the Control by an Independent Judicial Authority over the Deprivation of Liberty before Criminal Trials, RAPHAËLE PARIZOT
8. Judicial Independence and the Prevention of Atrocity Crimes in Myanmar, DANIEL AGUIRRE
9. Identifying Dangers to Democracy: Fascism, the Rule of Law and the Relevance of History, STEPHEN SKINNER
Part III: Judicial Independence in Context: From Criminal Justice to 'Law and Emotions' Studies and Looking to the Future of Judicial Independence
10. Judicial Independence and Countering Terrorism in the UK, JOHN D. JACKSON
11. The Parole Board as an Independent Judicial Body, and Challenges to its Independence, HH JEREMY ROBERTS QC
12. The Judge Under Pressure: Fostering Objectivity by Abandoning the Myth of Dispassion, MOA BLADINI AND STINA BERGMAN BLIX
13. Epilogue: Judicial Independence: The Need for Constant Vigilance, THE RIGHT HON. THE LORD THOMAS OF CWMGIEDD
14. Conclusion: On 'Crisis' and Threats to Judicial Independence as Constant Features in the Landscape of Judicial Activity, YVONNE MCDERMOTT AND DIMITRIOS GIANNOULOPOULOS