In response to a request from the Mission Droit et Justice2, this research attempts to shed lighton the transformations in the human resources management (HRM) of judges. Led by amultidisciplinary team (law, management sciences and sociology) of French and Belgianresearchers, it aims to characterize the HRM model of justice and its main evolutions byproceeding to a systematic comparison of the French and Belgian cases, assisted by a Swedishcounterpoint. It also seeks to evaluate and reveal on this basis their possible malfunctions,deficiencies, and incoherences. Relying on a qualitative methodology that mobilizes more thana hundred semi-directive interviews (n=122) with the organizing bodies involved in HRM butespecially with the judges themselves and their heads working in French (n=13), Belgian (n=9)and Swedish (n=4) courts and first instance jurisdictions of different sizes, the report proposesa contextualist analysis (contents, contexts, processes) of HRM models by focusing on theessential actors who activate and translate them locally, those whom we refer to as ‘localmanagers’ (heads of courts). After setting the institutional and statutory scene in the French,Belgian and Swedish judiciaries, it describes the organizational configurations and HRMmodels and questions their correspondence, focusing more particularly on the French andBelgian cases. It analyzes principles, tools, and practices of five dimensions of HRM:recruitment, training, career, evaluation, and remuneration. It examines the central place holdby these ‘local managers’ court management by focusing on their environment, their roles, theirorganizing work, their working conditions and their power to act. The three questions the reportpoints out – the consistency and relevance of the HRM model, the heads of courts’empowerment and capacity to act, the professionalization of human resources management inan institution that is still heavily marked by a professional governance represented by a collegialform – warn on the risks of a crumbling of HRM. ...