Towards a New Global Judicial Power? How Transnational Judicial Networks can Influence the Balance of Power

Over the past decade, there has been a striking blossoming of judicial networks across Europe. From a wide-ranging perspective, judicial networks can be described as groups, conferences, commissions or organizations of legal experts, judges and academics (coming from different countries) established at a transnational level. Overall, the activities of these networks can be summarized as an exchange of ideas and practices, in the production of recommendations, opinions and best practices, concerning different fields of law and the functioning of the judicial system, and in the organization of seminars, conferences and training of judges and legal experts. The general purpose of this research is to open up the box of "judicial networks" and bring a deeper understanding of this emerging "European community of Courts" through a fine-grained exploration of transnational judicial fora. In this light, the paper gives an overview of the topic describing the different types of networks and their activities.