Independent judiciary
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 10. In the US Constitution: Article III (life tenure, salary protection).
Note on this measure. CCP JUDIND requires an EXPLICIT declaration of judicial independence. Article III secures it structurally instead (life tenure, salary protection), so the US codes 0 here despite having a famously independent judiciary. Read this row as a measure of constitutional wording, not of institutional reality.
Does declaring it change anything?
Distribution of practiced scores, split by whether the constitution declares the right. If the two distributions look alike, the words on the page are not doing much work on their own.
Mean practiced score: 54% where declared, versus 74% where silent.
What the text actually says
Passages tagged with this topic, from the Constitute Project.
The courts are independent and subject only to the Constitution and the law, which they must apply impartially and without fear, favour or prejudice.
Country by country
| Country | Declared | Practiced |
|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | 100% | 15% |
| Albania | 100% | 62% |
| Algeria | 100% | 22% |
| Angola | 100% | 34% |
| Argentina | 100% | 70% |
| Armenia | 100% | 49% |
| Azerbaijan | 100% | 11% |
| Bahrain | 100% | 17% |
| Bangladesh | 100% | 20% |
| Barbados | 100% | 87% |
| Belarus | 100% | 2% |
| Belgium | 100% | 84% |
| Benin | 100% | 50% |
| Bhutan | 100% | 77% |
| Bolivia | 100% | 32% |
| Botswana | 100% | 73% |
| Brazil | 100% | 82% |
| Bulgaria | 100% | 76% |
| Burma/Myanmar | 100% | 11% |
| Cambodia | 100% | 20% |
| Cameroon | 100% | 20% |
| Cape Verde | 100% | 76% |
| Central African Republic | 100% | 27% |
| Chad | 100% | 22% |
| Chile | 100% | 85% |
| China | 100% | 11% |
| Colombia | 100% | 76% |
| Comoros | 100% | 35% |
| Costa Rica | 100% | 83% |
| Croatia | 100% | 74% |
| Cuba | 100% | 28% |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo | 100% | 29% |
| Denmark | 100% | 96% |
| Djibouti | 100% | 43% |
| Dominican Republic | 100% | 69% |
| Ecuador | 100% | 59% |
| Egypt | 100% | 63% |
| El Salvador | 100% | 12% |
| Equatorial Guinea | 100% | 7% |
| Eritrea | 100% | 13% |
| Estonia | 100% | 88% |
| Eswatini | 100% | 46% |
| Ethiopia | 100% | 30% |
| Fiji | 100% | 68% |
| Finland | 100% | 93% |
| France | 100% | 85% |
| Gabon | 100% | 38% |
| Georgia | 100% | 53% |
| Ghana | 100% | 73% |
| Greece | 100% | 72% |
| Guatemala | 100% | 67% |
| Guinea | 100% | 43% |
| Haiti | 100% | 31% |
| Honduras | 100% | 70% |
| Hungary | 100% | 53% |
| Indonesia | 100% | 56% |
| Iran | 100% | 20% |
| Iraq | 100% | 43% |
| Ireland | 100% | 88% |
| Israel | 100% | 79% |