Confidence In Justice Research Articles

Challenges of Kosovo Judicial Reform from an International Perspective: Issues and Complexities

This study systematically investigates the primary issues and obstacles impeding the establishment of a functional and credible judiciary in Kosovo, adopting an international perspective. The research methodology includes a combination of qualitative and empirical analytical approaches to concrete actions based on a review of relevant literature, reports, and legal documents. This paper concludes that Kosovo should be ready to reach compromises, strengthen the independence, pro­fessionalism, transparency and accountability of judges and prosecutors, and increase public confidence in justice, to achieve a successful reform in the judicial system. The paper offers several recommendations for improving the quality and efficiency of justice in Kosovo, such as promoting cooperation and coordination with international factors in this field.

Peculiarities of execution of punishment in the form of arrest by military personnel

It does not require any special proof that the assumption of irrationality and unreasonableness in matters of sentencing may level the success of all criminal law institutions, give rise to a sense of injustice, reduce confidence in justice and finally call into question the definition of a particular State as a State governed by the rule of law.
 Indeed, the goal set by the law on criminal liability can be achieved through a variety of criminal penalties, primarily by enabling the court to impose a punishment on a person guilty of a criminal offense in each case, applying the principle of justice and individualization of responsibility.
 One of the indicators that may indicate whether punishment achieves the goal of reforming convicts is the recidivism rate, in the broad sense of the term, namely the rate reflecting the number of persons convicted of a criminal offense, provided that they have previously been convicted of at least one criminal offense.
 When applying arrest with detention in the brig, the goals of punishment are achieved primarily by applying the following measures: establishing an appropriate regime for the execution and serving of sentences; organizing educational influence; involving convicted servicemen in socially useful work; organizing military training for social influence.
 The special conditions are primarily determined by the fact that in case of conviction of a serviceman to arrest, he is not released, but serves his sentence under the condition of further military service.
 At the moment, the legal regulation of the procedure for the execution of sentences that may be imposed on military personnel remains largely unexplored, so our task in this article is to consider in more detail the procedure for serving a sentence of arrest by military personnel.

The essence and significance of ensuring the independence of the prosecutor’s office in Ukraine

It is emphasised that ensuring the independence of the prosecutor’s office in Ukraine is a necessary step to increase trust in justice, fight corruption and ensure justice in society. This will contribute to building a strong rule-of-law state where every citizen has equal rights and can count on a fair and objective consideration of their cases.
 It is established that the independence of the prosecutor’s office is a principle and, at the same time, a state in which the prosecutor's system functions independently of the influence of external factors, including political and economic factors, as well as other persons, ensuring freedom to perform its functions and powers on the basis of the law and the principles of justice. This includes impartiality, objectivity, integrity, absence of corruption and the ability of prosecutors to act in the public interest, ensuring the protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens.
 It is determined that the importance of ensuring the independence of the prosecutor's office is due to the following factors: prevention of political influence on the investigation process, which ensures the objectivity and integrity of justice; improves the effectiveness of the fight against corruption and crime; acts as an additional guarantee of protection of the rights and freedoms of citizens, since an important task of the prosecutor's office is to ensure legal equality, combat human rights violations and protect the interests of society as a whole; ensures increased public confidence in justice and the system of law enforcement.

Essence, purpose and objectives of pre-trial investigation: theoretical and legal characteristics

It has been proved that a pre-trial investigation can be defined in two ways: firstly, as a process defined in the provisions of the current criminal procedure legislation and implemented by specially authorized entities; secondly, as an activity aimed at collecting, verifying and evaluating evidence, in particular, establishing all the necessary objective circumstances of a criminal offence and the range of entities involved in it, which will allow the court to resolve the case fairly on the merits. It has been argued that pre-trial investigation is an important stage of criminal proceedings, which makes it possible not only to ensure and protect the rights, freedoms and interests of a person and a citizen, but also to simplify the work of the judicial system, make it more transparent and efficient. In addition, if the pre-trial investigation is conducted properly, it can increase public confidence in justice, as there will be a belief that the case is being handled objectively and fairly.
 The following key tasks of the pre-trial investigation have been identified: to find out the circumstances of the criminal offence (time, place, method of its commission, information about the person who committed the crime); to collect evidence that undoubtedly proves that a particular person committed the crime (testimony, photo and video materials that can help establish the facts of the crime and identify the person who committed it); to establish the circle of suspects, etc. This involves identifying a range of potential suspects and conducting interrogations with them to establish their involvement in the crime; evaluating evidence, establishing its reliability and relevance to the case; making decisions on serving a notice of suspicion and referring the proceedings to court; making decisions on continuing the pre-trial investigation or terminating it; restoring the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of the victim, compensating for the damage caused, etc.

Justice in the Jungle: Litigation and Judicial Violence in Calais Refugee Camps at the French–UK Border

This contribution critically addresses the migration-as-crisis framework by focusing on litigation in the case of camp evictions in Calais, on the French–British border. Courts are spaces of confrontation between actors (judges, lawyers, activists, exiles, etc.) who have different conceptions of migration, of fundamental rights, and of the ways of guaranteeing them. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork methodology (interviews with judges, lawyers, and activist legal supporters of migrants; observations of hearings; and administrative and police archives and documents) and drawing upon socio-legal scholarship, this article underlines how the “migration-public order” nexus influences the way courts address migration by reducing the effectiveness of some basic legal principles and fundamental rights. In particular, I focus on the social construction of judicial decisions and the instrumentalization of justice resulting in creating judicial violence: I argue that this judicial violence at the border is paradigmatic of a “justice crisis” which has direct effects on the agency of legal supporters (lawyers and activist legal experts), who try to defend the rights of exiles through judicial tools, and ultimately on their (lack of) confidence in justice.

Розгляд цивільних справ за участю суду присяжних в Україні

The article is devoted to the issues of retrospective analysis of the development of the jury trial in Ukraine, starting from its actual origin in the ancient Russian state and ending with the modern period, analysis of the peculiarities of civil cases involving jurors, But both then and now, controversy over him continues. There are supporters who consider it the most democratic institution in the country, which helps to reduce cases of unilateral and biased civil cases, increase public confidence in justice, and there are opponents who advocate its complete elimination due to a number of existing shortcomings. -political institution of power. It is worth noting that the development of the institution of a jury trial in most civilized countries was based on both the English experience and their own legal traditions and national characteristics. In general, the practice of introducing juries in different countries of the world shows that acting as an indicator of national legal awareness and readiness for reform, the jury, on the one hand, reflects the characteristics of the society in which it operates, and on the other hand - affects changes in professional and everyday legal awareness. Peculiarities of consideration of civil cases with the participation of jurors are determined. Emphasis is placed on the fact that there is still a division of competence between a professional judge and jurors. The participation of jurors in civil proceedings is aimed at ensuring the tasks of civil proceedings, which include fair, impartial and timely consideration and resolution of civil cases in order to effectively protect violated, unrecognized or disputed rights, freedoms or interests of individuals, rights and interests of legal entities. persons, interests of the state. The administration of justice with their participation is aimed at the observance of civil procedural form, due process, principles of civil procedural law, and the exercise by litigants of their procedural rights and responsibilities. This will increase the personal responsibility of judges for their decisions and rulings in civil proceedings. The procedural position of jurors is regulated by the norms of the Constitution of Ukraine, laws and bylaws. In itself, the idea of such a form of justice with the participation of representatives of the people in order to control the judiciary and increase public confidence in it is quite good, because it benefits both the state and society. However, the analysis of current legislation, case law shows a lot of shortcomings and problems in the jury trial, which require their elimination. There is a need to adjust the existing practice on this issue, taking into account the position of the European Court of Human Rights. It has been found that the jury has deeper problems, which arise from the problems of other spheres of public life. Lack of clear and detailed regulation by the legislator, unwillingness to work with such a system, irresponsibility and even unprofessionalism of officials who compile lists of jurors, judges and much more lead to defects in the activities of this court. It should be noted that the study of approaches to solving the problems of civil cases by a jury indicates the need to improve existing legislation.

ЖИНОЯТ ПРОЦЕССИДА ШАХС ҲУҚУҚЛАРИ ПРОЦЕССУАЛ КАФОЛАТЛАРИНИНГ НАЗАРИЙ ВА ҚОНУНЧИЛИК АСОСЛАРИ

Ensuring reliable protection of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of citizens in the judicial system, as well as further strengthening public confidence in justice, the content of legal reforms is to ensure the rights of the individual. Accordingly, this article examines the theoretical and legal foundations of procedural guarantees of individual rights in criminal proceedings on the basis of theoretical and practical analytical data. The article also analyzes the scientific views of scientists on the theoretical aspects of procedural guarantees of individual rights in criminal proceedings.Keywords:law, law, standard, crime, criminal procedure, investigation.

How Does Courtroom Broadcasting Influence Public Confidence in Justice? The Mediation Effect of Vicarious Interpersonal Treatment.

The present study aimed to examine whether the applied practice of cameras in courtrooms plays a positive role in public confidence in legal authorities and how such impact may occur from the perspectives of the Group Value Model and the surrogacy effect. A convenience sample of 170 college students participated in this experiment. The control group read the written judgment of a civil case published online while the experimental group read the same judgment and watched the court trial video of that case. The overarching mediation model confirmed that there was a significant and indirect influence of video watching on confidence in justice in general. The key underlying mechanisms of this impact were the positive perception of the interpersonal treatment by the judge as well as the perceived fairness of the procedure. This study contributes to the currently limited research examining whether and, if so, how courtroom broadcasting promotes public trust through obtaining empirical evidence. It also expands the application of the Group Value Model to a vicarious interaction setting and provides evidence of the surrogacy effect in a civil legal context.

The new possibility of methodology of sentencing in Croatia de lege ferenda – the new improved formula

The inconsistent case law seems to be a relatively big problem because it affects confidence in justice and legal certainty. The background of this problem is process of sentencing. In Croatia there is no methodology for determining the punishment. Of course, the Croatian Penal Code has the norms which regulate the purpose of punishment and it, in some generic form, stipulates the circumstances which can be relevant for determining the punishment. However, it does not say anything about the process itself nor does it define the methodology to carry it out. During this process the court has to bear in mind the purpose of sentencing and the perpetrators guilt, in order for punishment to be proper and would correspond to the severity of the committed offense. Hence, as here is no methodology no one can be sure whether or not this process was lege artis. In that regard author give their proposition of possible solution to this matter. They are suggesting the introduction of non-mandatory ‘formula’ for sentencing into the Croatian criminal law system. The formula would now be improved And more appropriate than the previous one. Author believe ‘the formula’ should contribute to the harmonization of case-law in Croatia and to the preservation of the principle of legal certainty and finally the rule of law. Similar solutions already exist in some countries. The Republic of North Macedonia, which incorporates the civil or continental law system, introduced the special Law for the Determination of the Type and Duration of Sentence in 2015, while the United States have been applying the Sentencing Guidelines since 1987.

Perceptions About Compliance with Law and Vulnerable Groups in Brazil

This paper investigates the degree of effectiveness of the rule of law in by analyzing how some vulnerable social groups, such as women and black people, deals with the compliance with law and with some authorities’ orders in Brazil. We created the Brazilian Confidence in Justice (BCJI) as a validate argument for our confidence measure and the Brazil Perception of Compliance with Law Index (BPCLI) that measure perceptions, attitudes and habits of Brazilians concerning compliance to law. We identified some reasons that could explain the perceptions of these specific social groups. We found that there is a positive and significant relationship between the Brazilian Confidence in Justice (BCJI) and Perception of Compliance with Law (BPCLI). This paper innovates when it shows some patterns regarding two vulnerable groups analyzed here: women and blacks believe that there are few reasons for a person like them obey the laws. In addition, we concluded that women have a higher level of BPCLI than men, which means, women comply with the law more than men; and blacks have a worst perception of the compliance with law comparing with whites, since they understand that Brazilian society seldom comply with law. We also found a positive relationship of BPCLI with variable age and income.

Confidence in Justice: Evidence from Brazil

One issue that affects the economic and social development of a country is the ability of the judiciary to present itself as a legitimate instance in resolving conflicts that arise in the social, business and economic development. One way to measure this is through legitimacy of the motivations that lead citizens to trust or not in the Judiciary. We created the Brazilian Confidence in Justice Index (BCJI) as a validation argument for our confidence measure. The BCJI is a measure of perception, which shows the opinion of the population about Brazil’s judiciary. Our results indicate that race and gender are important predictors once controlled for other characteristics of respondents. Blacks have a slightly lower level of confidence in the judiciary than whites. Women also present less confidence than men. We also show that people with low income have lower levels of trust. Our findings also have other important implications for confidence in the judicial system. We show that there is a positive and strong relationship between confidence in the judicial system and propensity to seek the judiciary. This result indicates that although judiciary has lower levels of trust for a pool of demographic and economic variables, most Brazilians perceive it as a legitimate way to seek solution to their problems and would not hesitate to go to court to resolve conflicts of their daily lives

Why do Congolese People go to Court? A Qualitative Study of Litigants’ Experiences in Two Justice of the Peace Courts in Lubumbashi

Although Justice of the Peace (JP) courts did not escape the general deterioration of Congolese administrative structures, Congolese people continue to use these courts to resolve their conflicts. Based on qualitative research carried out in Lubumbashi, this article attempts to understand why people bring their cases to the JP court. How do litigants make that decision in the first place? Once their cases are underway, how do they deal with the trial? The authors emphasise the fact that while litigants denounce the corruption that occurs within the legal system, they continue nevertheless to have confidence in justice itself and in the State. This faith reflects the importance of the law and the formal ideal of institutions that were inherited from the Belgian colonial period in various areas of the daily life of Congolese people. But it also suggests that, counter to the dominant paradigm in the study of the State in Africa, these institutional norms do not simply represent an illusion without basis in reality. Where circumstances allow, these norms do indeed play a structuring role in the functioning of bureaucracy in Congo.

Justice on the Ground: Can International Criminal Courts Strengthen Domestic Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Societies?

The author examines how developments in international criminal law — including creation of the International Criminal Court and various hybrid tribunals — can have an impact on rule-of-law building efforts in post-conflict societies. Although trials of atrocity perpetrators primarily and appropriately focus on fairly trying the accused individuals, these processes also have a wider impact on public perceptions of justice and potentially can influence a society’s ability to embrace rule of law norms. The quality of outreach and capacity-building accompanying these trials may well have a decisive effect on whether these proceedings, on balance, strengthen or undermine public confidence in justice and justice institutions in societies recovering from atrocities. This piece stresses the need to supplement international and hybrid criminal trials with more meaningful outreach to the affected populations, and with more systematic domestic capacity-building and empowerment aimed at both formal justice systems and civil society.

Public Confidence in Criminal Justice in Canada: A Comparative and Contextual Analysis

Public confidence in criminal justice has emerged as an important issue in most western nations. Several jurisdictions have made promoting public confidence a policy priority, and governments in many countries have recently conducted public opinion surveys to gauge levels of confidence in criminal justice. However, little is known about levels of public confidence in criminal justice in Canada. This article reviews the empirical research on this issue and attempts to explain current trends. Although a significant plurality of the public expresses little confidence in the justice system, more people are positive than are negative. In comparison to other countries, confidence levels in criminal justice are generally higher in Canada. This said, the public has less confidence in the justice system than in other public institutions such as the health care system. Consistent with findings elsewhere, the police attract most, and the prison system the least amount of public confidence. The article places these findings in context, and discusses their implications for research and policy.