Judicial systems of the Swiss cantons of Aargau and Bern: A comparative-legal analysis

Switzerland currently consists of 26 cantons, each of them having its own government bodies, including the judiciary ones. On the basis of regulatory and doctrinal sources, the author examines the main features of the judicial systems of the Swiss cantons of Aargau and Bern. The first one is of a monocratic nature; it has no Constitutional Court; the judges' established specialisation is rather narrow; unlike the cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Thurgau and Lucerne, there is no institutionally separate court considering the procedural coercion measures; the offices of the cantonal judge and the deputy of the Federal Assembly of Switzerland are compatible; the judges are divided into full-time and freelance ones; the majority of the judges are elected and carry out their activities on a professional basis. The second system is polycratic; it has a three-tiered structure; the judges' specialisation is rather narrow; there are judicial conciliation commissions; the functions of trying criminal and administrative cases are transferrable to executive authorities; the judges face a specific requirement to know two state languages (French and German). It is shown that the experience of the cantons of Aargau and Bern can be useful in the further comparative research of the constitutional and criminal procedure law of Switzerland, including comparing it with the Russian Federation. Bern is a major business, financial and tourist "business centre", while Aargau is primarily a rural and agrarian canton. Bern has a long history, it was founded in 1353; vice versa, Aargau is a fairly young region that emerged during the Napoleonic wars in 1803. The population of the canton of Bern is almost 1 million people, and in Aargau there are 627 thousand people (as of 2012). In terms of crime, these cantons differ from each other due to geographical, sociological and other conditions; thus, the means to combat it, including the procedural mechanisms, are also different. Bern is a bilingual canton where both German and French languages have an official status; in Aargau, German is the only official language. The mentioned circumstances resulted in a strong influence of French law on the criminal procedure of Bern (this is also traceable in the canton of Aargau that was influenced as well).

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