Judges must uncover their own errors

More and more people are becoming implicated in the Fortis Bank affair which forced the government in Belgium to step down last year. On Monday it was revealed that judges were also involved in the attempt to influence the proceedings against the bank on the government's behalf. This has damaged the neutrality of the constitutional state, the daily De Morgen concludes: "What can citizens believe in when even the highest judges in the country play fast and loose with the most elementary legal principles and were in cahoots with one of the parties involved in the proceedings? This undermining of the constitutional state … cannot go unpunished and certainly should not be concealed under the cloak of judicial independence. This is the only way for the judicial system to prove that it can uncover and punish its own internal errors and that the judiciary is not a caste free to do anything it pleases, even undermine the principle underlying its existence."

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