Why an independent judiciary is essential to America’s survival

“All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.” So said President Andrew Jackson, according to reports from the time. In class, my students and I studied the difference between common law countries like the United States and code law countries found in Europe. We also have judicial review, where courts can overturn a national or state law, something rarely found in Code Law countries, which act as more like a government appendage and often issue very brief rulings, simply restating what the government’s law is, and are less likely to actually challenge it. My LaGrange College undergraduates and I gathered data on which countries had common law systems, and which ones had code law systems. When it came to Transparency International’s “Corruption Perception Index” — higher scores mean less perception of corruption — we found that common law countries were significantly less likely to be corrupt than code law countries.