Determinants of judges’ career choices and productivity: a Polish case study

The goal of this paper is to identify factors which affect judges’ productivity and career choice motives with the view of increasing judicial efficiency. Specifically, the investigation focuses on such aspects as judges’ remuneration, promotion, threat of judgment revocation, service/mission, perio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of law and economics 2022-02, Vol.53 (1), p.81-107
Main Authors: Banasik, Przemysław, Metelska-Szaniawska, Katarzyna, Godlewska, Małgorzata, Morawska, Sylwia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Careers
Case studies
Commercial Law
Court decisions
Courts
Economics
Economics and Finance
Efficiency
Employment
European Integration
Judges & magistrates
Judiciary
Law and Economics
Leisure
Occupational choice
Prestige
Productivity
Public Finance
Questionnaires
Revocation
Selfmonitoring
Threats
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Summary:The goal of this paper is to identify factors which affect judges’ productivity and career choice motives with the view of increasing judicial efficiency. Specifically, the investigation focuses on such aspects as judges’ remuneration, promotion, threat of judgment revocation, service/mission, periodic assessment, the threat of a complaint about protracted proceedings or of disciplinary proceedings, the threat of destabilization of the employment relationship, status/prestige of the profession, power/authority, social recognition, leisure, as well as administrative supervision and self-monitoring. To this end, a survey was conducted among judges of three of the largest Polish regional courts and subordinate district courts. The descriptive and statistical analyses show that judges’ care for the number of cases resolved, proxying for their productivity, is significantly correlated with self-monitoring of their adjudication activity. The stability of employment, the status/prestige of the profession and a relatively high remuneration are the most important factors in terms of judges’ career choices. In their care for the number of cases resolved remuneration is, albeit, no longer a relevant factor. Judges monitor their productivity due to reasons other than remuneration, possibly the sense of service/mission and the threat of various adverse consequences, the evidence for which is, however, also rather weak.
ISSN:0929-1261
1572-9990
1572-9346
DOI:10.1007/s10657-021-09688-4