ABSTRACT
This Chapter of the book concerns the proposed benchmarks set for the independence, accountability, efficiency and effectiveness of the judiciary in the Western Balkans. It will provide an in-depth normative and empirical analysis of the reforms undertaken to reach these benchmark standards in a five-country case-study. The results of the research presented in this Chapter are based upon a combination of three methodological strands:
I A normative approach, which performs a content-analysis of the legal rules and administrative regulations which were adopted and implemented as a basis upon which to raise the standards of the region’s judicial sector, to meet with the aforementioned benchmarks. For the need of this book the existing legislative framework will be (critically) understood as a prescriptive set of statements whose internal consistency will be scrutinized against the external demands established for the aspiring member states within the EU accession process.
