Procedural Justice in Law II

Abstract

The material presented in the preceding chapter shows that procedural fairness judgments are important in determining reactions to encounters with legal and dispute resolution procedures and that procedural justice is one of the most important considerations affecting disputant preferences for different procedures. Sufficient justification for intensive study of the factors affecting procedural fairness can be found in its effects on any one of several variables: satisfaction, support, compliance, or procedural preference. All of these attitudes and behaviors have long been recognized to be worthy of study, and we now know that if we are to understand them we must understand the psychology of procedural justice. We believe, however, that additional justification for the study of the sources of procedural justice judgments can be found in the variety of attitudes and behaviors affected by procedural justice judgments. In other words, it is important that we understand the etiology of procedural justice judgments not only because they affect any specific attitude or behavior, but also because they affect so many different attitudes and behaviors. The variety of consequences of procedural justice points, we believe, to the importance that people accord to it. The experience of procedural justice (or procedural injustice) is a profound feature of social life, and one that is worthy of study in its own right.