June/July 2010

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AJS Representatives Consult on Process for Assessing Performance of Turkish Judges

In recent months, the Turkish Ministry of Justice has been studying ways to improve the current process for assessing the performance of Turkey’s judges. Turkey has a career judiciary where, once judges are appointed, they serve until age 65. Judges are admitted to the profession, appointed, and promoted by an entity known as the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors, which consists of the Minister of Justice, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice, three members from the Court of Cassation (the highest court for civil and criminal cases), and two members from the Council of State (the highest court for administrative cases).

Currently, the sole purpose of assessing judicial performance is to determine whether judges of the courts of first instance should be promoted. These judges are evaluated every two years, and the assessment process consists of three components: a certificate of standing prepared by members of the Board of Inspection of the Ministry of Justice, a report card issued by the relevant high court on the decisions it has reviewed, and statistics on case management.

The Board of Inspection is interested in altering the assessment process to make it more objective, more comprehensive, and more transparent, and officials are looking to similar processes in other countries for guidance. Working with the United States Embassy and the British Embassy, the Inspection Board invited experts and judges from the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom to Ankara to serve as consultants. Representing the U.S. were AJS’s Malia Reddick, Judge Edward Moss of the 17th Judicial District of Colorado, and Judge Daniel Barker of the Arizona Court of Appeals. (Colorado and Arizona are two states that are widely recognized as having exemplary judicial evaluation programs.) Also consulting were Professor Stephen Colbran of the University of New England, Australia, and Sir Brian Neill, Senior Judge and Mediator from the UK.

During the early days of their trip, the consultants were given unprecedented access to the highest levels of the Turkish judicial system, meeting with members of the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors, the Court of Cassation, and the Council of State, as well as the Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice and the General Directorate of Personnel, which handles administrative aspects of appointment, discipline, and promotion of judges. According to Mike Lang, who represents the U.S. Embassy in this joint project, this level of access “highlights the deep respect that Turkey has for the American system of justice, their desire to grow as a justice system, and their faith in all of us as ambassadors of our country.”

The trip concluded with a two-day workshop at which the consultants made presentations on their knowledge of and experiences with judicial performance evaluation. One of the primary points that the consultants stressed in their remarks was that, in addition to informing judicial promotions, the assessment process could be structured to also foster judicial self-improvement and enhance public confidence in the judiciary. A delegation from the Ministry of Justice hopes to visit the U.S this fall to observe firsthand judicial performance evaluation processes in Arizona and Colorado.

The Turkish judicial system is on the cusp of other potential reforms as well, with a constitutional referendum in September that would make significant structural changes to the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors. In addition, the Turks plan to have intermediate appellate courts in place by the end of 2010, and they are considering the introduction of alternative dispute resolution.