John Doerner
John Douglas
Scott Graves
Gordon Griller
Ingo Keilitz
Matthew Kleiman
John Matthias
William Raftery
David C. Steelman
Suzanne Tallarico
Richard Van Duizend
To preserve both its actual and apparent impartiality in resolving disputes, the judicial branch must be more distant from the political influences of citizen majorities and special interests than are the legislative and executive branches. While the function of the courts in reviewing and interpreting the law sometimes requires decisions that are unpopular and lead to criticism by the legislature, opportunities for interbranch relations can be augmented and the conditions for conflict avoided by appropriate exercise of judicial restraint in the review of legislation and by more effective efforts to inform lawmakers about the appropriate function of the courts and the potential impact of proposed legislation.
Links to related online resources are listed below. Non-digitized publications may be borrowed from the NCSC Library; call numbers are provided.
A compilation of the National Association for Court Management's Justice Achievement Awards from 2000-2011.
This guidebook is a part of the much larger research project "Legislative-Judicial Partnership." This report addresses issues such as the usage of legislative liaisons, judicial impact statements, long-range court planning, and educational programs.
This well-written book addresses many of the fundamental issues of state judiciaries. The book is divided into four major sections including "The Administrative Requirements of Judicial Independence", "The Obstacles to Judicial Branch Control of Internal Operations," "Creating an Independent Judicial Branch: The Court Reform Movement." and "The Next Reform Phase."
The staff memorandum provides information on American judicial independence. Many courageous and now highly praised decisions of the utmost importance to our nation, which were initially unpopular, have been made possible because of the independence of the American judiciary.
This staff memorandum discuses the relation of judicial selection methods, particularly judicial elections, to judicial independence. Concerns related to attacks on judicial candidates and attempts by business and political interests to influence judicial elections are examined.
This document updates information about approaches to setting salaries and other elements of judicial compensation, particularly information abut state boards or commissions that have the authority to study and recommend the compensation level of judges.