It will be 272 years this year since Montesquieu, in his influential De l’esprit des lois, argued that the separation of powers, in particular the separation of the judicial from the executive, is the key to a healthy political system if it is to prevent the abuse of power.
Judicial independence is intended to safeguard peoples’ rights against legislative, and more often executive, invasion and abuse. Thus, imbalance between the three branches of the state powers – executive, legislative, and judicial – often throws an entire governance system out of kilter.
With the rule of law under threat throughout the world due to endurance of authoritarianism and rising populist movements, the beginning of this new decade is an apt time to review where justice stands.
