The Politics Of EU Judicial Support After The Arab Spring: From Independence To Efficiency

151 Pages·2021·1.662 MB·English

by  Gaia Taffoni

The Politics of EU
Judicial Support after
the Arab Spring
From Independence to
Efficiency
Gaia Taffoni
The Politics of EU Judicial Support
after the Arab Spring
Gaia Taffoni
The Politics of EU
Judicial Support
after the Arab Spring
From Independence to Efficiency
Gaia Taffoni
School of Transnational Governance
European University Institute
Florence, Italy
ISBN 978-3-030-50772-5 ISBN 978-3-030-50773-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50773-2
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Preface
This book is the final product of three years of research spent among
the Network for the Advancement of Social and Political Studies at the
University of Milan, the Centre for European Studies at Queen Mary
University London and at the School of Public Policy at University
College London.
The book draws extensively from my doctoral thesis, in particular part
of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 have appeared in the article Supporting Rule
of Law from Abroad: A comparative assessment of two post-Arab Spring
judicial reforms published in the Italian Political Science Review in July
2019.
This work reflects my interest in the processes of change happening
in the Southern Mediterranean region at the level of judicial institutions.
Focusing consistently on the mechanisms that trigger transformations in
a soft way, this book is a first attempt in understanding the power that
shared norms and ideas have in the processes of policy transformation.
Inparticular,theoriginalpuzzlethatgeneratedtheresearchconducted
in this book is the event—or the sum of interlocked events—that took
place in the MENA region in 2011, namely the ‘Arab Spring’. That
impetus for change happening at the borders of the EU increased the
attention of international donors in supporting the democratic reforms
taking place in some countries in that area. Despite the importance and
the relevance of the situation, the dynamics of the European influence
onthereformstakingplaceinthosecountrieswasstillpoorlyunderstood
v
vi PREFACE
whenIstartedmyPh.D.Havetechnicalaids,financialsupportsandsocial-
izationmechanismssetupbyEuropeanexpertsinhybridregimesencour-
aged the efforts for democratization? What is the extent to which EU
standardsandpracticesonjusticehavepenetratedincountriesundergoing
processesofinstitutionalreforms?Whathasbeentheroleplayedbyactors,
andinparticular,whoarethenormentrepreneurs thathavedrivenchanges
at the judicial level? This book is the result of numerous encounters and
exchanges with scholars and experts that helped me in confronting with
thosecompellingquestions.Forthisreason,Iwishtoextendmygratitude
to those who have shared their ideas with me in the past years and have
had an impact on my intellectual understanding. I would like to thank in
particularProfessorGianpieroCamaandProfessorDanielaPianafortheir
support in the design of this research. I am also grateful for the expert
advice of Professor Carlo Guarnieri, Dr. Sarah Wolff, Professors Barbara
Pisciotta and Francesco Raniolo; my warm thanks also go to Professor
ClaudioRadaelliforhisinterestandsupportinthefinalstepsofmywork.
London, UK Gaia Taffoni
Contents
1 Promoting Justice in the Southern Mediterranean 1
2 The Nature of EU Judicial Support in the Southern
Neighbourhood: Exploring Sectoral Cooperation 61
3 Morocco: Judicial Changes Between European
and Domestic Models 91
4 Jordan: Little Steps Towards a Reformed Judiciary 111
5 Limitations and Possibilities of Externally Supported
Judicial Reforms 131
Index 143
vii
Abbreviations
CCJE Consultative Council of European Judges
CEECs Central and Eastern European Countries
CSM Conseil Supérieur de la Magistrature
CSPJ Conseil Supérieur du Pouvoir Judiciaire
EU European Union
ICJ International Commission of Jurists
ICT Information Communication Technology
ISM Institut Supérieur de la Magistrature
JHA Justice and Home Affairs
MENA Middle East and North Africa
NPM New Public Management
US United States
ix
List of Tables
Table 1.1 The institutional dimension 17
Table 1.2 The managerial dimension 23
Table 1.3 Background commonalities 27
Table 1.4 Overview: EU economic relations with Morocco and
Jordan 28
Table 1.5 Characteristics of the judicial council in Morocco before
and after the reforms 35
Table 1.6 Characteristics of the judicial council in Jordan before
and after the reforms 37
Table 1.7 Measurement of the Judicial Councils’ strengths 38
Table 2.1 Categories and related words for text analysis 65
Table 2.2 Percentage for each word and each cluster of words in
the texts analysed 69
Table 2.3 European model of judicial promotion 73
Table 2.4 ENPI/ENI programmes of judicial support in Morocco 74
Table 2.5 ENPI/ENI programmes of judicial support in Jordan 75
Table 2.6 Overview of Southern ENP Judicial support’s objectives:
Twinning 83
Table 2.7 General overview of Southern ENP Judicial support’s
objectives: TAIEX 84
Table 3.1 Comparative timeline—Morocco’s judicial reforms and
European inputs 99
Table 3.2 Overview of the ISM project 104
Table 3.3 Theinternal/externalmodelappliedtoMoroccanjudicial
reforms 107
xi
xii LIST OF TABLES
Table 4.1 Timeline–Jordan’s judicial reforms and European inputs 119
Table 4.2 Overview, single projects and types of intervention of
judicial support in Jordan 121
Table 4.3 European projects and observed domestic changes 124
Table 4.4 The internal/external model applied to Jordan’s judicial
reforms 126
Table 5.1 Morocco and Jordan in comparative perspective: the
institutional dimension 136
Table 5.2 Summary—Morocco and Jordan’s main judicial
managerial changes 138