The Minerva Research Group on Judicial Independence under the auspices of Anja Seibert-Fohr which is integral part of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg conducts a comprehensive research project on contemporary problems of judicial independence in domestic, comparative and international law. The aim of the research project is the development of theoretical principles and parameters of judicial independence in the context of globalization and internationalization. In a comparative law approach similarities and differences in the design of judicial independence at the national level will be demonstrated and ​​suggestions for determining the content of the principle on a transnational level will be made. A function-oriented concept of independence is assumed. The research results will also be made available in the area of ​​knowledge transfer. 

As part of the research project one habilitation and four dissertations are currently being written whose topics relate to the scope of the project. In addition, in the years 2008 to 2010, the research group in collaboration with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe launched a project to safeguard the independence of judges in the OSCE participating States and organized in this context, an international conference of experts. The project was completed with the drafting of the Kyiv Recommendations on Judicial Independence in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia. The recommendations now form the basis for several OSCE Rule of Law initiatives in the Eastern member states. The results of the scientific work will be published in 2012 in the book "Judicial Independence in Transition" by Springer.

In 2011 the research group also prepared a comparative study of different forms of judicial administration for the Office of the Chief Justice of South Africa. Aside from hosting guest lectures, the research group is a destination for visiting academics dealing with comparative law justice research.

Head of Research Group: Dr. Anja Seibert-Fohr

Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law

Im Neuenheimer Feld 535
69120 Heidelberg

Germany

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