In Europe and the Middle East, several governments are taking authoritarian approaches to their judiciary, largely by creating frameworks under which judges can be removed or punished by other members of popularly elected branches. A few updates after the jump.
Poland’s explosive, and partially successful, attempt to curb the independence of its judiciary continues to strain its relationship with the European Union and much of the rest of Europe. The Christian Science Monitor has published an extensive piece that tries to place the Polish judicial reforms in a broader political context.
Meanwhile, the government in Romania has begun its own efforts to curb the independence of judges and prosecutors, making it harder to rub out corruption.
And a bit further south, Mahmoud Abbas has introduced new legislation that would allow him to interfere with the nominal independence that Palestinian judges currently possess.
The Interdependent Third Branch 