able to act effectively and independently in discharging their functions.
Other influences include the extent to which a culture of the rule of law
pervades branches of the state and the wider public; the competence and
independence of the wider legal profession; the provision of legal education
and judicial training; efforts to ensure equality of opportunity and a
pool of applicants for judicial office that broadly reflects the society; the
resourcing of the justice system and settled understandings about the
appropriate interaction between judges, elected politicians and the media;
appropriate legal immunities for judges when performing their judicial
functions; and, a balance between institutional autonomy and the protection
of the independence of individual judges. A truly democratic spirit
also has to inform the letter of the rules.