The Jordanian Senate’s Legal Committee has endorsed a bill that would give the country’s judiciary an independent budget and improve the judicial appointment process. The marked bill now goes back to the Lower House for review, and to rationalize any inconsistencies between the two versions.
Budgetary independence is a central, and often overlooked, component of judicial independence. Courts are already dependent on other arms of the government for funding; to also be restricted in how the money is spent creates the obvious risk of quid pro quo justice. Budgetary independence was a major project for the United States Courts in the first part of the twentieth century, and it finally met with success in the 1930s. Other jurisdictions around the world are right to seek the same, and the Jordanian legislature is right to grant it here.
The Interdependent Third Branch 