This paper examined four aspects of judicial culture with a view to comparing judicial culture in the Netherlands with that in Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia. These were: 1) judicial culture and the role of judges in developing the law; 2) the principle of judicial self-governance; 3) the role of higher courts in the uniform application of the law; and 4) the independence of individual judges. The reason for choosing these four aspects and examining informal rules and practices, in addition to the formal rules, was to be able to provide a more complete and meaningful picture of the state of the judiciary in these four countries, as examination of formal rules only could be misguiding. The findings in the regional reports confirmed the correctness of this underlying assumption.
Comparative Study on ‘Judicial Culture’: The Dutch Approach (Access will be granted upon request)