Judicial Selection, Lay Participation, and Judicial Culture in the Czech Republic: A Study in a Central European (Non)Transformation

Abstract

This paper discusses judicial selection and lay participation in the Czech judicial system. First, section 2 starts by setting out cultural vision of the judicial function in the Czech Republic that defines and helps to explain the institutions and their context addressed in the subsequent points. Next, section 3 outlines both, the formal requirements for judicial appointments to in particular higher courts in the Czech Republic as well as the genuine institutional practice. Section 4 focuses not only on the various forms of lay participation in the judicial decision-making processes as they exist today; it also explains why the post-1989 Czech judiciary remains reserved with regard to lay participation in the judicial process. Finally, section 5 concludes by connecting up lay-participation with judicial legitimacy.

Keywords: judicial selection, lay participation, social transformation, Central Europe, diversity, legitimacy.