The court covered itself in glory in the first 15 years, but its performance has been patchy since then, coinciding with Jacob Zuma’s presidency.
Political commentators have expressed concern that Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s decision to appoint former staffers to a committee that helps select provincial judges could politicize the courts.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
Appointing individuals who may have links to the party in power is not necessarily troublesome, as long as the process emphasizes legal knowledge and fairness, and not partisan considerations.
Kenya’s supreme court judges annul the results of the 2017 presidential election.
Simon Maina/AFP via Getty Images
Kenya’s confidence crisis is a problem because people need to believe the judiciary is acting independently if it is to play its role.
Lifetime tenure has pushed the average age of judicial nominees down as presidents appoint younger justices in hopes they will serve for many decades.
Erin Schaff/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Unlike in most countries, US Supreme Court justices enjoy life tenure. Some legal scholars believe that centuries-old custom, meant to protect judicial independence, no longer serves the public.
Political pressure is focusing on the makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images
The appointment of judges has hitherto been an obscure and oftentimes clandestine affair. This has produced incompetent judges and led to claims that the judiciary is beholden to the executive.
South African chief justice Mogoeng Mogoeng’s term ends in September.
GCIS/Flickr
The judicial process in South Africa is hugely contested. This places an exaggerated burden on the courts to act with maximum independence and impartiality.
Former South African president Jacob Zuma at the Zondo Commission in July 2020.
EFE-EPA/Mike Hutchings
If President Trump’s attacks on the justice system are meant to intimidate, there’s one class of employees who are immune to that: federal judges who have lifetime tenure.
Peter Mutharika during his inauguration as the President of Malawi last May. A court has annnulled his election.
Amos Gumulira/AFP via Getty Images
Mexico’s new president has reduced his own salary and demanded that all federal workers
– including lawmakers and judges – take a massive pay cut, too. That may be illegal.
Former President Jacob Zuma: the Constitutional Court has ruled his appointment of the top prosecutor illegal.
EPA-EFE/Jackie Clausen
An effective, accountable National Prosecutions Authority needs at least two things: structural independence and competent personnel with expertise and integrity.
Crowds protesting the forced retirement of judges, in front of Poland’s Supreme Court building, Warsaw.
AP/Czarek Sokolowski
With its attempt to purge the country’s courts of 40 percent of its judges, Poland’s right-wing ruling party passed another milestone on the path towards establishment of a one-party state.
It is obviously important to protect the institutional integrity and independence of the judiciary – but the judiciary and judicial decisions should not be immune from criticism.
A prison officer stands guard outside the Chief Magistrate’s court in Nairobi. Safeguarding reforms is key mandate for the in-coming Chief Justice.
Noor Khamis/Reuters
Jan van Zyl Smit, British Institute of International and Comparative Law
Despite some criticism, the screening of 50-odd judges and nearly 300 magistrates was a remarkable achievement. But Kenya’s new Chief Justice has some cleaning up left to do.
AIDS activists demand that the government of then-South African president Thabo Mbeki show a clear plan to fight the disease.
Reuters
One of the remarkable achievements of South Africa’s Constitutional Court has been its role in improving the quality of the internal democratic processes within the governing ANC.
Judge Thokozile Masipa during Oscar Pistorius’ trial in the High Court.
EPA/Kim Ludrook
The debate about the quality of High Court judges after the Pistorius trials reflects a different cultural clash in South Africa – one in which incompetence is often associated with black people.
Jeffrey L. Hyde and Sharon D. Hyde and Political Science Board of Visitors Early Career Professor in Political Science and Affiliate Law Faculty, Penn State