ICON S Conference 17 – 19 June 2016 Humboldt University Berlin

93 JUDICIAL DIVERSITY:
A COMPARATIVE APPROACH
While in theory the judicial role is constructed as depersonalized,
implicating an erasure of the subjective
persona of the judge in practice national and international
judiciaries tend to reproduce racial gender
socio-economic cultural and linguistic hierarchies. This
panel will discuss judicial diversity from a comparative
law perspective, reflecting on the various forms
of “otherness” needed on the bench in Africa, Europe,
the United States, as well as on multinational courts.
Participants Mathilde Cohen
Iyiola Solanke
Leigh Swigart
Name of Chair Thiago Amparo
Room BE2 E44/46
suggest, however, more than the nominee’s citizenship
or allegiance to a particular state. By extension,
this category may imply other characteristics that are
pertinent to the work of an international judge, including
linguistic knowledge and preferences, as well as
culturally embedded worldviews and behaviors, some
of which a judge may be largely unaware. This paper
will explore how language and culture are largely absent
in discussions around diversity in the international
judiciary and argue for increased awareness of these
attributes and their potential for important impacts
on the work of international courts. Such impacts may
be both internal and external, that is found within the
institutions themselves as well.
Mathilde Cohen: White and Female: Paradoxes
of the French Judiciary
Though it is presently impossible to measure racial
and ethnic diversity quantitatively in France, it appears
from my fieldwork that French judges are overwhelmingly
female, white, upper middle class, and of Christian
backgrounds – while the majority of the accused
are Maghrebi, black, or Eastern European males from
working-class backgrounds. To uncover the structure
of racial discrimination as well as other forms of intersectional
oppression, I analyze judges’ discourse
about diversity, examining the strategies by which they
dodge or downplay the relevance of race, gender, and
sexual orientation.
Iyiola Solanke: A Diversity Agenda for the Court
of Justice of the European Union
Although the Court of Justice of the European
Union (CJEU) has always been an international court,
it has been limited in its pursuit of diversity. The reasons
to be concerned with diversity apply to the CJEU
as much as any other court. Diversity as an input and
output contributes to the quality of judicial decisionmaking,
justice and democracy – diversity in the CJEU
strengthens democracy in the European Union as a
whole. The paper begins with an explanation of the
task and organization of the CJEU, and explores the
current diversity agenda in the EU before considering
the specific diversity challenge for the CJEU and
sketching a strategy to address it.
Leigh Swigart: Diversity on the International
Bench: The Case for Considering Language and
Culture
In the international sphere, certain attributes of persons
nominated for judicial positions receive a great
deal of scrutiny and oversight. Central among these
is nationality, with gender becoming an attribute of
increasing importance. As an identifier, nationality can
Concurring panels 137