Chapter 4 • Independence and Impartiality of Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers notion of “impartiality” in article 14(1) “implies that judges must not harbour preconceptions about the matter put before them, and that they must not act in ways that promote the interests of one of the parties”.12 As to the European Court of Human Rights, it considers that the notion of impartiality contains both a subjective and an objective element: not only must the tribunal be impartial, in that “no member of the tribunal should hold any personal prejudice or bias”, but it must also “be impartial from an objective viewpoint”, in that “it must offer guarantees to exclude any legitimate doubt in this respect”.13 The European Court thus adds to the more subjective mental element of bias the important aspect of availability of guarantees. 4.4 The notion of institutional independence The notion of institutional independence means that the Judiciary has to be independent of the other branches of government, namely the Executive and Parliament. According to Principle 1 of the Basic Principles on the Independence of the Judiciary: “The independence of the judiciary shall be guaranteed by the State and enshrined in the Constitution or the law of the country. It is the duty of all governmental and other institutions to respect and observe the independence of the judiciary.” Furthermore, according to Principle 7 of the Basic Principles, “It is the duty of each Member State to provide adequate resources to enable the judiciary to properly perform its functions.” In order to secure true independence of the Judiciary from the other two branches of government, it is necessary for this independence to be guaranteed, preferably by the Constitution; or, failing this, by other legal provisions. 4.4.1 Independence as to administrative matters Although international law does not provide details as to how this institutional independence is to be realized in practice, it is clear that, as a minimum, the Judiciary must be able to handle its own administration and matters that concern its operation in general. This includes “the assignment of cases to judges within the court to which they belong”, a matter which, as stated in Principle 14 of the Basic Principles, “is an internal matter of judicial administration”. 12 Communication No. 387/1989, Arvo O. Karttunen v. Finland (Views adopted on 23 October 1992), in UN doc. GAOR, A/48/40 (vol. II), p. 120, para. 7.2. 13 Eur. Court HR, Case of Daktaras v. Lithuania, judgment of 10 October 2000, para. 30; for the text see the Courts’s web site: http://echr.coe.int. 120 Human Rights in the Administration of Justice: A Manual on Human Rights for Judges, Prosecutors and Lawyers