Why judicial independence collapses: constitutional identity to Mars, the rule of law to Venus?

Judicial independence, usually reduced to mean a judge deciding cases free from any external or internal influence, fails for different reasons. This chapter explains how the ideology of constitutional identity could be instrumental in making judicial independence collapse. Using the attempt of the Polish populists to reform the judiciary according to their self-interests as the springboard, it also demonstrates how abusive constitutional identity claims serve to resist the remedial interventions of the EU overlapping judicial authority and the supremacy of EU law. The chapter begins by explaining how judicial independence, the rule of law, and constitutional identity converge in general and in the EU setting. It then discusses the weaponization of constitutional identity to kill judicial independence. By illuminating larger lessons from faking constitutionalism, the chapter clarifies why constitutional identity and the rule of law are not at odds with defending judicial independence in the EU.