Judicial Independence from Political Science Perspective: A Theoretical Model Proposal (in Turkish)

In the literature we come across two different concepts of judicial independence. While “de jure judicial independence” refers to the constitutional guarantees for the judiciary and judges, “de facto judicial independence” refers to the judicial independence in practice. Understanding whether the constitutional
guarantees of judicial independence affect the judicial independence in practice comes to the fore as an important research question. The aim of this study is to offer a theoretical model that explains the conditions under which de jure judicial independence affect de facto judicial independence. The main argument of the study proposes that based on the public’ s confidence in the judiciary, political awareness and democratic values the impact of de jure judicial independence on de facto judicial independence changes across political regimes. In this regard it is argued that while in advanced democracies and authoritarian regimes taking judicial independence under constitutional guarantees would not significantly affect judicial independence in practice, in the context of hybrid regimes as the public’s confidence in the judiciary, its political awareness and democratic values increases the constitutional guarantees would significantly increase the judicial independence in practice.