Judges Around the World (Update)
Simple Justice:
Adam Liptak provides a fairly good compare and contrast piece today between how people get robes in the United States versus how judges are selected elsewhere. One might think that Americans elect judges because of some deep-seated theoretical paradigm to achieve a higher and better justice. Not exactly.
“It’s a remnant of the populist Jacksonian image of public office,” [Herbert M. Kritzer, who was until recently a professor of law and political science at the University of Wisconsin] said. “We’re crazy about elections. The number of different offices we elect is enormous.”
Going back to an anti-elitist time in American history, when faith in the collective judgment of the people was elevated above all else in American politics, the idea of electing judges, together with dog-catcher, became popular. There was no particular belief that elections were well-suited for identifying and placing people in the position of sitting in judgment, but rather a…