Individual judge at the heart of the rule of law – judicial ethics and integrity in the laws of Serbia and Montenegro

Judicial independence is strongly correlated to judicial integrity, understood as the ability of the judicial system or an individual judge to resist corruption, while nurturing the values of independence, impartiality, equality, competence, and diligence. It is upon the judiciary itself to formulate a code of professional conduct, assist judges in adhering to the code, and apply corrective measures if judges deviate from it. In countries where the independence of the judiciary from the other two branches of power is still a battle to be won, legislators seem to be keen on setting a strong legislative framework on judicial independence. The tendency to legislate rather than leave the regulation of these issues to judicial self-governance can be attributed to external conditionality, as judicial reforms are more easily seen to be done through legislative instruments. Over the past decade, Serbia and Montenegro have made significant changes to their regulatory frameworks, demonstrating their commitment to ensuring judicial independence. The authors posit that, in order to ensure judicial independence, all rule of law principles should be interpreted in conjunction with the judicial ethics dimension of the principle of judicial self-governance. Against this background, the paper examines the ways in which Serbian and Montenegrin legislators have addressed issues related to judicial ethics and judicial integrity. They find that legislators purposefully regulate issues that should be left to the judiciary itself, thus disregarding international standards and judiciary-led progress, while underpinning their solutions with a threat of sanctions