From Vanderbilt University:
While discussions about the current state of democracy have reached a fevered pitch, its application to the internal workings of courts, especially at the state and local levels, has been largely overlooked. In the introduction to her article “Justice Citizenship,” published in South Carolina Law Review’s recent symposium issue, Vanderbilt Law Professor Lauren Sudeall emphasizes that, as is the case for the executive and legislative branches, the relationship between citizens and the courts should be guided by democratic values.
Scholars focused on access to justice, she notes, often focus on courts’ institutional role in a larger democratic structure, while spending less time on “the preliminary step of defining democracy and what it means, or should mean, within the courts and as part of their day to day operations.” Inherent to democracy is the understanding that the government exists “of …, by …, and for the people,” yet that understanding is rarely applied in thinking about how courts treat the people who use them every day. Conceiving of each individual as a “citizen of the courts” suggests they are entitled to a set of rights and privileges while being expected to fulfill certain responsibilities.
In defining the concept of “justice citizenship,” Sudeall identifies three key values, based on commonly recognized democratic principles, that can and should be used to assess court systems and guide reform efforts. Continue reading
|
|
|
|
