Judges and the law – a very strange combination, and not just in Switzerland.
Last week we reported here on how the Zurich judges are dealing with the new maintenance law. How an association redefines the changes planned by Parliament until the old status quo emerges again.
Today comes a report about a specific case, this time from Austria, but it could just as easily have taken place somewhere in Switzerland.
Here, too, the law is bent, disregarded, and reinterpreted until the result is what the individual judge wants to make of it.
The longer it goes on, the more it becomes clear that it is not enough to change the laws. Obviously, our executive organs are only bound to the laws to a limited extent and can interpret them as they wish in a way that fits into their individual world view. This must not be the case because it contradicts the separation of powers and therefore democracy in our country.