Thinking about Judges and Judicial Performance: Perspective of the Public and Court Users

<p>Studies of the courts, conducted primarily in the United States, suggest that the way legal professionals think about judging underpins nearly all official evaluations of judicial performance. The general public has a different view than lawyers of judging that merits consideration along with the type of criteria emphasized by the legal community. Research demonstrates that the public places the greatest importance on the extent to which a judge reaches decisions through a process that meets the public's expectations of fairness. Surveys of California residents and California attorneys are used to demonstrate the importance of procedural justice for explaining whether people have trust in the courts and regard court decisions as legitimate. The article describes and critiques existing judicial performance evaluation programs that incorporate procedural justice principles as a dimension for measuring judicial quality through both survey and observational methods.</p> <hr /><p>Los estudios sobre tribunales llevados a cabo principalmente en Estados Unidos, sugieren que la opini&oacute;n sobre el hecho de juzgar de los profesionales del derecho est&aacute;n detr&aacute;s de casi todas las evaluaciones del rendimiento judicial oficiales. El p&uacute;blico general tiene una visi&oacute;n del hecho de juzgar diferente a la de los abogados, que debe tenerse en cuenta junto con los criterios destacados por la comunidad jur&iacute;dica. La investigaci&oacute;n demuestra que el p&uacute;blico da mayor importancia a que un juez tome una decisi&oacute;n a trav&eacute;s de un proceso que cumpla con sus expectativas de justicia. Se emplean encuestas a residentes de California y abogados de California para demostrar la importancia de la justicia procesal, a la hora de explicar si la gente tiene confianza en los tribunales y perciben las decisiones judiciales como leg&iacute;timas. El art&iacute;culo describe y critica los programas de evaluaci&oacute;n del rendimiento judicial que incorporan principios de justicia procesal como una dimensi&oacute;n para medir la calidad judicial, tanto a trav&eacute;s de encuestas como de m&eacute;todos de observaci&oacute;n.</p> <p><strong>DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN</strong>: <a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=2541450 " target="_blank">http://ssrn.com/abstract=2541450 </a>