Court Governance in Context: Beyond Independence

There is a growing trend in some of the world’s most advanced western democracies of entrusting certain “framework” aspects of court administration to independent judicial agencies. This trend was highlighted in my recent study of the models of court administration, in which I examined court governance systems in seven Australian and international jurisdictions. This article will focus on the reasons behind the establishment of such agencies and the need for judges and policy makers to clearly identify the problems, aims and drivers for reform before embarking on a mission to adopt a particular “model.” At first, this may seem like an obvious proposition; however, recent experience in overseas jurisdictions demonstrates that it is not easy to reach a consensus on even the most basic issues affecting the administration of justice in courts.