Judicial Administration: Its Relation to Judicial Independence

• NCJ Number: 115235
• Author(s): R Wheeler
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 57 pages
• Corporate Author: National Ctr for State Courts
• Sale Source: National Ctr for State Courts; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

As long as there have been courts, there have been defenders and critics of their performance and arguments over how to change their administration.

Abstract

What is new to the 20th Century is the development of a separate judicial branch administrative capability. While the presence of court administrative offices have not halted controversy over how courts are operated, court administrators have gathered, refined, and used data for debates. Court administrative offices have served as a vehicle for ensuring that diverse interests are heard as judicial policy is formed and implemented. In addition, this separate administrative capacity has fostered in the judiciary the strength to resist the encroachments of other branches of the Government, helping the judiciary maintain independence and compete on a more equal footing in the political process. The fundamental goal of the separate administrative capability should be to ensure the judicial independence that is a necessary condition for promoting and protecting the court's ability to resolve disputes, justly, economically, and expeditiously. The importance of judicial independence should permeate judicial administration because judicial independence and just and effective case disposition are the values that define judicial administration and legitimize its claim for respect. 174 notes.