Procedural Fairness: A Critical Component of Therapeutic Jurisprudence

JSI President Judge Peggy Hora (Ret.), Vice President David Wallace, and CFO Judge Brian MacKenzie (Ret.) along with Carol Fisler will discuss procedural fairness and its role in therapeutic jurisprudence at the 36th International Congress on Law and Mental Health in Rome, Italy.

More specifically:  Therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) says that the processes used by courts can promote outcomes connected with participant wellbeing such as respect for and trust in  the justice system and the law and offender rehabilitation. To achieve this outcome the operational structure of TJ is built upon the four key concepts of procedural fairness. Procedural fairness, is a subjective evaluation of a person’s experience in the justice system and is separate from the actual outcome of the case. While the result is important, an individual’s willingness to accept court decisions is rooted in their perceptions of how they were treated during the process itself. Thus, procedural fairness is a critical component of TJ and to understanding how the public interprets their experience with the court system and how individuals translate that experience into a subjective valuation of the court system as whole.

Preliminary Session Schedule

Abstract Booklet – Draft