Qualitative interviews with one hundred defendants in Dutch criminal cases examine whether perceived procedural justice is a relevant concern for defendants, and, if so, which procedural justice components they refer to. The study provides a point of epistemological departure from the quantitative studies dominating the field, as it assessed which components of procedural justice (if any) respondents put forward themselves rather than asking about predetermined procedural justice components. The large majority of respondents mentioned procedural justice issues themselves, and six components were at the core of their procedural justice perceptions: (1) information on which decisions are based, (2) interpersonal treatment, (3) due consideration, (4) neutrality, (5) voice, and (6) accuracy. Although these procedural justice components largely correspond with the literature, respondents thus mentioned some components more often, and others less often, than the literature would suggest. In particular, neutrality plays an important role in the Dutch legal context examined here.

The author wishes to thank the judges who participated in the interviews and the members of the HiiL Highest Courts Research Group for their comments and suggestions concerning earlier drafts of this paper. The usual disclaimer applies. 1 From a legal perspective, 'globalisation' can be defined as the trend toward world domination of specific regimes; see H.P. Glenn, Legal Traditions of the World (Oxford 2007), p. 49. The emergence of transnational connections between courts has been referred to under many different names. In S. Muller & S. Richards (eds.), Highest Courts and Globalisation (The Hague 2010), the term 'judicial internationalisation' is used to capture the increased exchange of legal ideas and experiences between judges in different legal systems, a trend also referred to as 'transjudicialism, judicial dialogue, judicial cosmopolitanism, judicial globalisation, the migration of legal ideas, legal transplants'; see p. 4 of the Introduction by the editors. 6 See inter alia Markesinis & Fedtke, op.cit. note 5 above; M. Andenas & D. Fairgrieve (eds.), Tom Bingham and the Transformation of the Law: a Liber Amicorum (Oxford 2009). 7 It is assumed that global influences will most likely be found at this level of judicial decisionmaking. See Muller & Richards, op.cit. note 1 above.

No abstract

No abstract

This study aims to put perceived procedural justice to a critical test in the context of Dutch criminal court hearings. To that end, we surveyed 198 criminal defendants to examine whether their perceptions of procedural fairness were significantly associated with trust in judges and intentions to protest against judicial rulings, among other variables. We also examine the possibility that sometimes unfair procedures may have nice aspects, because they offer opportunities to attribute negative outcomes to external causes. Previous studies conducted in different settings support this line of reasoning by showing that associations between perceived procedural justice and other variables are sometimes attenuated or even reversed, particularly when people feel strongly evaluated. The current study takes these insights into the novel context of Dutch criminal court hearings by focusing on defendants with a non-Western ethnic-cultural background. Some of these defendants may feel negatively evaluated by society, which can manifest as a high level of perceived discrimination. Thus, we examine whether the associations between perceived procedural justice and important other variables may be attenuated or reversed depending on respondents’ perceptions of everyday discrimination and their outcome judgments. Our results revealed significant associations between perceived procedural justice on the one hand and trust in judges and protest intentions on the other hand, which remained intact regardless of perceptions of everyday discrimination and outcome judgments. Hence, even in this real-life courtroom context, procedural justice was a relevant concern. Taken together, our findings support the importance of perceived procedural justice, even when it is put to a critical test.