On the Effect of the Modus Operandi of âJudge Selectionâ on Judicial Independence in the Unites Statesâ legal System with an Eye to Iranâs Legal System

Azizi1*, Ibrahim; Amiri2, Mohsen; Vijeh3, Mohammad Reza

On the Effect of the Modus Operandi of âJudge Selectionâ on Judicial Independence in the Unites Statesâ legal System with an Eye to Iranâs Legal System

Authors

Ibrahim Azizi1* ¹

Mohsen Amiri2 ²

Mohammad Reza Vijeh3 ³

¹ 1. Assistant Professor, Ministry of Science, Research & Technology, Tehran, Iran

² 2. Ph.D. student, Department of Public and International Law, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

³ 3. Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Allame Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The present study involved a critical investigation of typical judge selection approaches in the legal system of the United States of America (USA), comparatively mapping the results onto Iran’s legal system. The results indicated that despite being a political process, the US’ M.O. of federal judge selection has no consequences for the judges’ procedural independence, owing to the prevailing security of tenure. Like-wise, notwithstanding the judicial independence-related problems and challenges it has effected, state-level judge selection has brought about promising prospects, as evident in the reluctance of the US’s legal system to set aside judicial election procedures. Also the comparative study of the US’s and Iran’s legal systems revealed that the political and beliefs-related prerequisites pre-ordained in the prospective judges’ qualifications list and judge appointment approaches by the Iranian policy-making body has, on the one hand, served to deny Iranian judges’ rights for democratic functioning, and left them owing to key political figures, on the other.

Keywords

Judicial election

judges

Independence of judge