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The Guardians and the Watchdogs:
The framing of politics, partisanship and qualification by selected newspapers
during the 2018–2019 Slovak Constitutional Court appointment process
Max Steuer, M.A., PhD.,
Comenius University in Bratislava, Department of Political Science
Právny obzor, 102, 2019, special issue, pp.
34-54.
Published online: 15.1.2020
Abstract. This article aims to place the selection
process of judges to the Slovak Constitutional Court, which is most likely to
determine its composition for more than a decade, into the context of the
constitutional judges’ interaction with other political actors, including the
broader public. It illustrates how selected quality Slovak newspapers have
framed the role of politics in the selection process. Conceptually, the article
departs from a more robust line of research undertaken in several Western
democracies, particularly the United States, that has given rise to discussions
about how their apex courts interact with the media and, through them, with the
public at large. Building on theories of the courts as political institutions
and informed by theses on the judicialization and mediatization of politics, the
article presents a broader understanding of both the decisionmaking process of
constitutional judges and politics emphasizing expertise in their selection.
Firstly, the selection of judges and their adjudication might be seen through
partisan bias, associated with the attitudinal model of judging, and secondly,
it might be perceived as a neutral expertise, associated with the vision of the
courts as bureaucratic non-political actors. Surveying selected, primarily
opinionated newspaper outputs, the article found a peculiar interaction between
the debate surrounding qualification as a necessary justification for a
constitutional appointment and the three different frameworks of constitutional
judges as political but non-partisan, partisan, or neutral (non-political)
actors. Qualification is overwhelmingly seen as a necessary condition for
appointing a constitutional judge, regardless of their views. However,
disagreements persist as to whether previous political experience disqualifies a
candidate. Such disagreement overlies a deeper divide over whether
constitutional judges are political actors, and if so, what kind of political
actors they are.
Keywords: Slovak Constitutional
Court, constitutional judges, appointment process, newspaper portrayal, framing,
attitudinal model, institutional approach
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ISSN 2729-9228
(online)
ISSN 0032-6984
(print)
THEORETICAL REVIEW FOR ISSUES OF STATE AND LAW.
Právny obzor is peer-reviewed journal and is indexed in SCOPUS and HeinOnline database (INDEX TO FOREIGN LEGAL PERIODICALS).
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OPEN ACCESS