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The Origins and Consequences of Procedural Fairness
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 December 2018
Abstract
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- Review Essay
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- Copyright © American Bar Foundation, 1990
References
1 John Thibaut & Laurens Walker, Procedural Justice: A Psychological Analysis (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1975) (“Thibaut & Walker, Procedural Justice”).Google Scholar
2 See, e.g., Carrie Menkel-Meadow, “Toward Another View of Legal Negotiation: The Structure of Problem Solving,” 31 UCLA L. Rev. 754 (1984); Sally Merry & Susan Silbey, “What Do Plaintiffs Want? Reexamining the Concept of Dispute,” 9 Just Sys. J. 151 (1984).Google Scholar
3 For a comparison of adversarial and inquisitorial systems, see Miriam Damaska, “Structures of Authority and Comparative Criminal Procedure,” 84 Yale L. J. 483 (1975).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 Subsequent work by Thibaut and Walker extended their theory to other decision-making domains. See John Thibaut & Laurens Walker, “A Theory of Procedure,” 66 Calif. L Rev. 541 (1978).Google Scholar
5 Miriam Damaska, “Presentation of Evidence and Factfinding Precision,” 123 U. P. L Rev. 1083 (1975); Robert M. Hayden Jill K. Anderson, “On the Evaluation of Procedural Systems in Laboratory Experiments: A Critique of Thibaut and Walker,” 3 Law & Hum. Behav. 21 (1979); Jill K. Anderson & Robert M. Hayden, “Questions of Validity and Drawing Conclusions from Simulation Studies in Procedural Justice: A Comment,” 15 Law & Soc'y Rev. 293 (1981).Google Scholar
6 The Thibaut and Walker research program is discussed thoroughly in chapter 2. Chapter 3 is devoted to research methods and the philosophy of science as it pertains to procedural justice studies. Chapter 3 was undoubtedly prompted by the criticisms of the laboratory simulation method that Thibaut and Walker used to explore their hypotheses. For readers trained in the social sciences this chapter is unnecessary, but for others it provides a useful background.Google Scholar
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17 See Thibaut & Walker, Procedural Justice ch. 2, 3, and 6–21 (cited in note 1).Google Scholar
18 Pauline Houlden, Stephen Latour, Laurens Walker, & John Thibaut, “Preferences for Modes of Dispute Resolution as a Function of Process and Decision Control,” 14 J. Experimental Soc. Psychology 13 (1978).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
19 See K. Leung & Allan E. Lind, “Procedural Justice and Culture: Effects of Culture, Gender, and Investigator Status in Procedural Preferences,” 50 J. Personality & Soc. Psychology 1134 (1986).Google Scholar
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24 Kenneth Kressel & Dean G. Pruitt, “Conclusion: A Research Perspective on the Mediation of Social Conflict,” in Kenneth Kressel & Dean G. Pruitt, eds., Mediation Research (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1989) (“Kressel & Pruitt, Mediation Rssearch”).Google Scholar
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27 See Joel Rosch, “Institutionalizing Mediation: The Evolution of the Civil Liberties Bureau in Japan,” 21 Law & Soc'y Rev. 244 (1987); Setsuo Miyazawa, “Taking Kawashima Seriously: A Review of Japanese Research on Japanese Legal Consciousness and Disputing Behavior,” 21 Law & Soc'y Rev. 219 (1987); Frank K. Upham, “Litigation and Moral Consciousness in Japan: An Interpretive Analysis of Four Japanese Pollution Suits,” 10 Law & Soc'y Rev. 579 (1976).Google Scholar
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30 K. Rasinski & Tom R. Tyler, “Fairness and Vote Choice in the 1986 Presidential Election,” 16 Am. Pol Q. 5 (1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
31 E. N. Muller & T. O. Jukam, “On the Meaning of Political Support,” 27 Am. J. Pol Sci. 785 (1977).Google Scholar
32 An alternative possibility is that disadvantaged persons may be less sophisticated in their ability to present their views.Google Scholar
33 A recent study by James L. Gibson, “Understandings of Justice: Institutional Legitimacy, Procedural Justice, and Political Tolerance,” 23 Law & Soc'y Rev. 469 (1989), examined the relationship between perceptions of procedural justice and unpopular institutional decisions by means of survey data. Gibson concluded that perceptions of institutional procedure had little impact on compliance. However, Gibson also acknowledged that the failure to find the expected relationship may possibly be ascribed to his methodology. See id. at 491.Google Scholar
34 S. Alexander & M. Ruderman, “The Role of Procedural and Distributive Justice in Organizational Behavior,” 1 Soc. Just. Res. 117 (1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35 Robin I. Lissak, “Procedural Fairness: How Employees Evaluate Procedures,” (Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois, Champaign, 1983).Google Scholar
36 See supra notes 14, 15, 16, and accompanying text.Google Scholar
37 See Lauren G. Wispe, “Positive Forms of Social Behavior: An Overview,” 28 J. Soc. Issues 1 (1972); or id., ed., Altruism, Sympathy, and Helping: Psychological and Sociological Principles (New York: Academic Press, 1978).Google Scholar
38 Vidmar & Miller, 14 Law & Soc'y Rev. at 565 (cited in note 14).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
39 See John Thibaut, Laurens Walker, Stephen Latour, & Pauline Houlden, “Procedural Justice as Fairness,” 26 Stan. L Rev. 1271 (1974). Using the insight from John Rawls's A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1971), the researchers created conditions that placed disputants either in front of or behind a “veil of ignorance” regarding which procedures would be used to resolve their dispute. Of those in front of the veil, some were advantaged and some were disadvantaged. Those persons in a disadvantaged role or behind the veil showed stronger preferences for procedures that favored disadvantaged parties, whereas advantaged persons showed a preference for procedures that favored advantaged parties. Thibaut et al., 26 Stan. L Rev. at 1283. These findings seem consistent with the findings in studies discussed supra at text immediately preceding note 5 and the text around notes 7 and 8. They also are very consistent with the self-interest bias posited by an instrumentalist perspective.Google Scholar
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