Abstract

The High Council for the Judiciary (Hcj) is a constitutional body granted with full responsibility to recruit, assess, monitor, and promote judges and prosecutors. This work, by means of a reconstruction of the competences and the patterns of decision-making, focuses on the way the Hcj functions as mechanism of judicial self-government. The author analyses some of the key functions, such as judicial training, professional assessment, disciplinary control, the adoption of policies to protect the image of courts. Then she shows how each of these functions is performer within a pattern of inter-institutional accountability. A comprehensive and critical view is then offered to the reader. The Hcj proves to be the leading actor in an enclosed and bounded system of governance and yet in some cases, as for instance in the field of judicial training, a more open system would be welcome in order to ensure a more effective inter-institutional accountability.