Procedural Justice in Law I

Abstract

It is no accident that the first systematic study of the psychology of procedural justice involved the application of psychological method and knowledge to legal issues: few areas of human endeavor place as much emphasis on procedure and process as does the law. As will be seen in later chapters, the procedures used in other social institutions provoke psychological responses similar to those seen in procedural justice research in legal settings; indeed, we contend that the same procedural concerns arise in almost any social environment. But these concerns are more obvious in the law than elsewhere. Because the essence of law is the regulation and regularization of social conduct, it is to be expected that the law would be preoccupied with its own regulation through procedure. This in turn makes the law a natural arena for discussions and analyses of the behavioral consequences of various procedures. Legal writing on procedure has over the centuries been much concerned with speculation about the reactions of litigants, lawyers, judges, and jurors to one procedural form or another. Given this centuries-old interest in how procedure affects the behavior of those involved with legal institutions, it is hardly surprising that the scientific study of the psychology of procedure should have begun with studies of legal procedures.