Enhancing the Administration of Justice and Strengthening Judicial Independence Through Independent Judicial-based Applied Research Centers Journal

Our article demonstrates the needs for and benefits of in- house judicial-based applied research centers and shows how such centers provide judicial policymakers with information about current judicial operations. This information informs judicial policymakers shaping judicial administration and, by shaping judicial administration in response to current judicial operations, strengthens judicial independence. We analyze and apply the experience of the federal judiciary's own in-house research and education agency, The Federal Judicial Center, to explore establishing and maintaining research centers. We then use two cases studies - the first involving the Twombly and Iqbal rulings and the second involving the Israeli Judiciary - to illustrate our discussion. We urge all judiciaries to develop an internal research component to enable judicial policymakers to better improve judicial administration and, thereby, strengthen judicial independence.