N. Doornbos

Voorbij procedurele rechtvaardigheid : De betrekkelijkheid van de beleving van respondenten

To overcome problems of juridification and formalization of administrative law, successful initiatives have been undertaken by professionals in the public administration and judiciary to improve administrative procedures. These initiatives have been inspired by theories of (perceived) procedural justice, as developed by Tyler and Lind (1988). Although the author acknowledges the importance of procedural justice, she argues that the strong focus on procedural aspects, based on subjective opinions of claimants, may unintentionally lead to a situation in which other important issues may be easily overlooked, such as the question why citizens would refrain from starting a lawsuit or the question what explains the low success rates of citizens in administrative law.

Loyaliteit binnen de rechterlijke macht

Judges in the Netherlands have recently expressed their concerns in the media over the organization of the judiciary and the pressure to deliver output. At the same time, they consider themselves highly loyal to their work. In this article we explore this seeming contradiction by studying the developments in the selection, training and organisation of the judiciary and considering the consequences that these developments could have on the loyalty of judges. In doing so, a distinction is made between loyalty to the profession, to the organisation and to colleagues. We follow Hirschman’s theory on Exit, Voice and Loyalty and determine that the act of judges expressing their concerns (instead of exiting the judiciary) is essentially a sign of their loyalty. However, we reason that this displays more loyalty to the profession than to the organisation. Due to changes in the selection and training of judges, more candidates who were formerly employed in other settings, e.g. in advocacy, will enter the profession. With their socialisation taking place in a more business-like setting, where values such as efficiency and productivity are significant, it is expected that they will be more willing to accept the new public management values which are criticized by the present generation of judges.

Risk Factors of Malpractice

Apart from the introduction and the concluding chapter, Abel’s Lawyers in the Dock consists of six chapters, each of which is devoted to disciplinary proceedings against a lawyer. Each chapter reads like a drama, a single-act play with a lawyer as the tragic figure. The reader knows from the start that the story will inevitably lead to a bad ending, since the chapters describe the decline of a lawyer who has betrayed the trust of many people around him (his clients), who depend on him and still count on him. He is the spider in the web and if he is removed from that web, heaven knows what will happen. Continuing the drama metaphor, I must acknowledge that the leading characters play their part convincingly. They fight the accusations, they file numerous motions, they stress the importance of the role they play in the lives of so many people, they sometimes admit that something went wrong, but more often they emphasise that they have been successful on many other occasions. Above all, they show us an accumulation of paltry excuses and of people who probably believe in their own lies. In this review I will focus on Chapters 2 and 3 from Part 1 dealing with neglect. I will confine myself to a summary of the two cases and a comparison between the two lawyers involved. Furthermore, I will raise three critical comments.