On Wednesday, the Federal Assembly elected Yves Donsallaz as President of the Federal Supreme Court. A month ago, SonntagsBlick investigated how seriously Donzallaz actually takes his duties as a judge.
The 61-year-old man wrote the 4,418-page book — in his spare time, he claims, and in his spare time at the office. He “worked as usual”, Donzallaz countered claims that he also wrote his opuses during working hours.
For Ms. and Mr. Schweitzer, the highest court is a black box, comparable to algorithms in social networks, the logic of which the programmers themselves no longer fully understand.
Only a rough process is known: judges usually delegate their tasks to court clerks. They do what is called initial processing before the verdict is returned to the judges almost ready for execution. By the way: in 2021, the Federal Supreme Court generally approved only 13 percent of cases.
Yes, most judges approach their work with great care. However, the system allows a book author like Yves Doncallas to claim to have worked to a “normal degree”. Because how much federal judges rely on the mere approval of other people’s projects, or how much they themselves invest in a decision, is a secret.
However, for the rule of law, this issue is relevant. Because when federal court clerks are actually federal judges, it turns the constitutional order on its head.