Judicial Autonomy under Authoritarian Attack - ESB Research Project
This research project was developed and realized through the Einstein-Mercator Matching Fund and ran from 2021 until the end of 2024. It investigated how legal and political reforms affected judicial systems across the Council of Europe’s member states over the past two decades. It examined how populist and authoritarian tendencies targeted judicial independence and explored whether specific institutional setup — achieved via a “toxic” constellation of reforms — made some systems particularly vulnerable to democratic erosion.
Led by the Chair for Comparative Political Sciences and Political Systems of Eastern Europe at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in collaboration with the Centre for Comparative Research on Democracy (CCRD), the project combined qualitative and quantitative methods to collect and analyze original comparative data from 43 Council of Europe member states (with the exclusion of some micro states). The research design was developed through iterative consultation with legal experts, who completed a structured questionnaire covering a wide range of indicators related to judicial autonomy, legal frameworks, and political-institutional developments between 2000 and 2022. Based on the data, the research team focused on developing the Judicial Autonomy Index (JA Index) — the central outcome of the project. The index synthesizes the experts’ responses into a comprehensive set of indicators to systematically assess judicial autonomy and its evolution across Europe. The project’s broader aim was to identify the mechanisms and symptoms of judicial weakening under authoritarian pressure and to develop evidence-based strategies for strengthening democratic resilience and safeguarding the rule of law. In doing so, it contributed to a deeper understanding of the conditions under which democratic backsliding occurs — and how it might be countered.
For more information about the project and research design, click here
For presentations and publications related to the project by the research team, click here
Research Team:
- Prof. Dr. Silvia von Steinsdorff
- Dr. Gülçin Balamir Coşkun
- Dr. Ertuğ Tombuş
- Kaja Kaźmierska
- Friederike Augustin
Duration: 2020–2024
Funding: Einstein Foundation Berlin, Stiftung Mercator