French ex-president Sarkozy begins jail sentence

oh I wish the American people were this brave

What I see in the US is that the judiciary has already become partisan. In most of Europe, if there's a trial, the judge is just some nameless character. I mean, he has a name of course, but nobody can really point the finger at them and say they are interested in one side or the other. It's just not the done thing. By contrast, American judges are appointed by politicians, and people can claim they are not impartial. (Or elected, same thing)

Here's a weird observation. I know the names of several US supreme court judges, and their right/left lean, despite never having lived there. I've lived in four other countries, and I might know one judge due to him having a funny name.

What also doesn't tend to happen in Europe is questioning the legitimacy of the system. People can get sentenced and they just... accept it.

I think that's just a case of you not knowing European judges are partisan, rather than you knowing they're not. I think the relative obscurity of judges in Europe is just lack of scrutiny, and I personally know of numerous situations where cases are handled poorly.