A large majority of judges is against the retention of mandatory contributions that are paid out annually to political parties.
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss judges want to break ties with politics
Swiss judges want to dissolve the traditional link between parties and court members, including mandatory contributions to a political party. A majority would like to see a reform of the current system.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Schweizer Richter wollen Entflechtung von Justiz und Politik
Original
The results of a survey of professional judges in Switzerland on the relationship between the judiciary and politics show the need to clarify these links, the Swiss Judges’ Association (SVR) said on Wednesday.
The respondents were critical of the current system of appointment and re-election. Access to a judgeship is often at the suggestion of a political party. Court members also have to be re-elected by a political body at regular intervals.
According to the SVR, a large majority is against the retention of mandatory contributions. Such a contribution is paid annually by the court member to his or her political party. This Swiss peculiarity hardly seems compatible with the principle of the independence of the judiciary, wrote the SVR.
Around 1,250 judges in Switzerland were contacted as part of the survey. Responses from 935 people were used for the analysis. The survey took place last summer.
Translated from German with DeepL/gw
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Culture
Wealth is not all: how gentrification in Zurich has led to housing shortage
Swiss press react to EU deal with mix of euphoria and scepticism
This content was published on
Swiss media reaction to the agreement between Switzerland and the EU varies widely. Some are celebrating, while others worry about what is to come.
Swiss Solidarity donations to tackle child abuse top CHF4 million
This content was published on
Swiss Solidarity, the humanitarian arm of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), has raised over CHF4 million ($4.3 million) to tackle child abuse.
EU Commission president says Swiss-EU deal is ‘historic’ agreement
This content was published on
At a joint media conference with Swiss President Viola Amherd in Bern, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of a "day of joy".
Switzerland and EU reach deal on future bilateral relations
This content was published on
Switzerland and the European Union have announced a political agreement to update their trading relationship after almost a decade of difficult talks.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.