The “Non-ideological" Significance of Party Controlled Courts
In light of recent developments such as the Valerie Plame leak (with these new revelations, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/328100p-280454c.html) the Downing Street Memo, and “smaller” things like http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20713FE3D5F0C768DDDAF0894DD404482&incamp=archive:search I think the importance of an independent judiciary is pretty obvious. Which is why the Bush administration’s attempts to turn the courts into partisan instruments (if they weren’t already considering Bush v. Gore 2000) seems particularly disturbing to me.
So here are two illuminative and recent examples of the power and radical potential of Italy’s independent judiciary.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/04/security.italy.kidnap/index.html
I find it utterly depressing that it takes a foreign government’s court system to charge CIA agents, when the courts in their country of origin couldn’t care less about abductions without due process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_Pulite
Seriously, I’d love for something like this to happen (although the long-term consequences didn’t turn out so well, with Berlusconi currently in power and all).
So here are two illuminative and recent examples of the power and radical potential of Italy’s independent judiciary.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/04/security.italy.kidnap/index.html
I find it utterly depressing that it takes a foreign government’s court system to charge CIA agents, when the courts in their country of origin couldn’t care less about abductions without due process.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mani_Pulite
Seriously, I’d love for something like this to happen (although the long-term consequences didn’t turn out so well, with Berlusconi currently in power and all).