Appleby, Gabrielle; Le Mire, Suzanne --- "The Australian judiciary: resistant to reform?" [2016] ELECD 1551; in Devlin, Richard; Dodek, Adam (eds), "Regulating Judges" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) 35

Book Title: Regulating Judges

Editor(s): Devlin, Richard; Dodek, Adam

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781786430786

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: The Australian judiciary: resistant to reform?

Author(s): Appleby, Gabrielle; Le Mire, Suzanne

Number of pages: 20

Abstract/Description:

In Australia, the judiciary is a powerful and well-respected institution. The values of institutional integrity and independence of both state and federal courts are constitutionally protected through implications derived from the separation of powers. Despite agreement on core values, there are tensions and debates about the optimal ways to preserve these values. This has fed into a wider debate about how best to design and regulate judicial institutions and processes in order to safeguard these traditional judicial values while also reflecting more contemporary values: accountability, representativeness, transparency and efficiency. Despite these tensions, the Australian judiciary has remained resistant to substantive reform, particularly around appointments and discipline. The regulation of the Australian judiciary is characterized by limited and formalistic legislative reform and jealously guarded self-regulation. This chapter explores the areas of contention in order to understand why more substantive and meaningful reform to embed contemporary values thoroughly has not yet been achieved.