Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Don't Judge Me: Declining Judicial Independence In Hungary And Poland, Jonathan Freeberg

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

What can the Hungarian and Polish experiences teach us about the processes of decreasing judicial independence, and how does a decrease in judicial independence affect judicial trust and quality of governance? This paper process-traces the erosion of judicial independence in Hungary and Poland from 1989-2021, highlighting different mechanisms that lead to decreases in judicial autonomy. The cases show that formal reforms and informal changes to the membership of the judiciary are both effective at decreasing the independence of the judiciary. The data does not support that these changes lead to significant changes in judicial independence or quality of governance. The …