Court administration performs a delicate balancing act between legal demands of court proceedings and organisational needs of efficiency and quality management: it involves the basic tension between judicial independence and accountability to the public and to the political domain.

Research in four European countries - Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland - shows how quality management can be practised in court administration while safeguarding judicial values.  Results are discussed per country in terms of the professional judicial perspective, the managerial perspective, and the political perspective. Recommendations are formulated on the basis of a comparative analysis across the countries.

This book invites judges and scholars in public administration or political science to take an interest in court management. It may help managers and policymakers in the justice field to make strategic choices that keep our democracies resilient within constitutional boundaries.