The autonomy of legal institutions is put on the most severe test when they are under attack by other organs of the state. The article discusses the Western legal tradition from an institutional perspective and the concepts of ‘institutions’, ‘path dependence’ and ‘rule of law’. Under this perspective, legal institutions have an autonomous development with characteristics that must be explained by their evolutionary origins. The article seeks to demonstrate that institutional theory deserves closer attention when studying law and political power and to place more the refined notions of the Western legal tradition and the Rule of law from legal research into the theoretical approach of institutional theory. Based on the example of judicial independence in Nazi Germany it seeks to test the explanatory power of institutional theory to legal phenomena.

中文翻译：

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威权统治下的司法独立：西方法律传统的一种制度途径

当法律机构的自治受到其他国家机关的攻击时，将受到最严峻的考验。本文从制度的角度以及“制度”，“路径依赖”和“法治”的概念探讨了西方法律传统。在这种观点下，法律制度具有自主发展的特征，必须通过其进化起源来加以解释。本文力求证明，在研究法律和政治权力时，制度理论应受到更密切的关注，并将更多的西方法律传统和法治概念从法学研究纳入制度理论的方法之中。以纳粹德国司法独立为例，它试图检验制度理论对法律现象的解释力。