My interest in judiciaries in different European countries was stimulated by a series of workshops I helped to run in the 1990s with Antoine Garapon of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Justice in Paris, Giuseppe di Frederico, Carlo Guarnieri and Patrizia Pederzoli from the University of Bologna, and José Juan Toharia from the Autonomous University of Madrid. These workshops were attended by judges from a number of countries - up to eighteen in one instance. Listening to the similarities and differences of the experiences that they related to each other, and having to produce concluding remarks for sessions, I was made not only to identify similarities and differences, but to reflect on the reasons for them. Discussion on these issues with academic colleagues and judges helped me to formulate the basis of a research project of which this is the fruit. The project was generously supported by the British Academy, which awarded me a Readership in 1999 to 2001, together with funds to undertake research visits to France, Germany, Sweden and Spain. In each of those countries, I was given generous assistance by academic colleagues and by those with responsibilities for the judiciary, as well as by judges themselves. I was able to complement reading of key materials with interviews and observation of court processes.

I owe a debt of gratitude to a large number of people who have helped in numerous ways to provide information and ideas on this research.