Trust and Legal Governance: A Case Study of Ethiopian Criminal Justice
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2015.00708.x |
| Date | 01 June 2015 |
| Author | Rasmus H. Wandall |
| Published date | 01 June 2015 |
JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY
VOLUME 42, NUMBER 2, JUNE 2015
ISSN: 0263-323X, pp. 283±307
Trust and Legal Governance: A Case Study of Ethiopian
Criminal Justice
Rasmus H. Wandall*
Current empirical research on trust in criminal justice focuses on
those who do the trusting. Working from the theoretical position that
trust is relational, this article expands that research by showing how
trust relationships between the public and criminal justice institutions
are shaped by the legal framework governing them. Reporting
empirical case studies from the plural legal governance of criminal
justice in Ethiopia, the article shows that the country's different legal
frameworks produce different constructions of trust relationships
between the public and criminal justice institutions. Furthermore, the
empirical study shows that the practical organization of daily case
handling in criminal justice institutions make for an important
mechanism to mediate and link these differently constructed trust
relationships.
INTRODUCTION
Empirical research on trust in criminal justice has become increasingly
important. The research maintains a strong focus on the ones who do the
trusting and on the factors that drive their trust up or down. Some of the most
important findings include Jackson and Sunshine's finding that public
perceptions of the police as defending their values and moral community
283
*Faculty of Law, University of Bergen, Magnus Lagabtes Plats 1, Postboks
7806, N-5020 Bergen, Norway
rasmus.wandall@jur.uib.no
Funded by the Bergen Research Foundation under the Functionality of Criminal Justice
Project of the Faculty of Law. Thanks to the anonymous reviewers, Ben Bradford,
Vanessa Barker, Dr. Menberetsehai, Yonas Adaye, Tina Sreide, and Louise V. Johansen
for insightful comments on earlier drafts. I also wish to acknowledge the collaboration
with JFA-PFE and the excellent research assistance of Eyerusalem Haile and Selam
Abraham.
ß2015 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2015 Cardiff University Law School
increased levels of public confidence in policing,
1
and Jackson et al.'s
confirmation of Tyler and Huo's earlier findings in the United States that
people have more trust in the police if they see them as treating people fairly
and with respect.
2
The object of trust in that line of research is almost
exclusively the `police' or `courts'. Respondents are asked about their trust
in various properties of these institutions (for example, fairness, efficiency).
From time to time, these studies do refer to `law' or `legal', but only as an
aspect of police work,
3
or as another word for police and court agency.
4
For
all practical purposes there is no focus on the distinct legal structures that
shape the operations of criminal justice institutions, and what role they have
in relationships of trust.
With this case study of the legal governance of criminal justice in the
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (hereafter Ethiopia), I want to
accomplish two things: first, following David Nelken's account of trust as
closely related to the functional systems governing criminal justice, I want to
move the focus from the public perceptions of trust to the structures of trust
relat ionsh ips tha t emerg e betwe en the pu blic an d crimi nal jus tice
institutions.
5
Second, I want to widen the criminal justice focus on `police'
and `courts' to also include the functional systems of `law' that govern these
institutions. I will argue that the legal framework itself plays a significant role
in structuring the relationship of trust between the public and criminal justice
institutions. Thus, in the case of heterogeneous legal governance in Ethiopia, I
will show how trust relationships are constructed differently through two
different legal frameworks. Secondly, I will argue that the practical organiza-
tion of daily operations in criminal justice institutions are instrumental to both
combine and intertwine these different trust relationships.
This article adds to the comparative literature on trust and law. First of all,
we know very little of trust mechanisms in the realm of criminal justice
284
1 J. Jackson and J. Sunshine, `Public Confidence in Policing: A Neo-Durkheimian
Perspective' (2007) 47 Brit. J. of Criminology 214. See, also, M. Hough et al.,
`Procedural Justice, Trust, and Institutional Legitimacy' (2010) 4 Policing: J. of
Policy and Practice 203; T. Tyler and Y.J. Huo, Trust in the Law: Encouraging
Public Cooperation with the Police and Courts (2002).
2 J. Jackson et al., Just Authority? Trust in the Police in England and Wales (2013);
Tyler and Huo, id.; T. Tyler, `Public trust and confidence in legal authorities: what do
majority and minority group members want from the law and legal institutions?'
(2001) 19 Behavioural Sciences and the Law 215.
3 Jackson et al., id., pp. 14, 189; M. Hough, J. Jackson, and B. Bradford, `Legitimacy,
Trust and Compliance: An Empirical Test of Procedural Justice Theory using the
European Social Survey' in Legitimacy and Criminal Justice: An International
Exploration, eds. J. Tankebe and A. Liebling (2013) 326.
4 Tyler and Huo, op. cit., n. 1; T. Tyler, Why People Obey the Law (2006); J. Jackson et
al., `Why People Comply With the Law: Legitimacy and the Influence of Legal
Institutions' (2012) 52 Brit. J. of Criminology 1051.
5 See D. Nelken, `Whom Can You Trust? The Future of Comparative Criminology' in
The Futures of Criminology, ed. D. Nelken (1994) 220.
ß2015 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2015 Cardiff University Law School
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