Rationales for Public Participation in the Justice System

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to consider the rationales for public participation in the justice system, except public participation in the criminal justice system. Section 1 presents an introduction to this paper. This is followed by Section 2, which discusses the implication of the court and judge system based on the theory of representative democracy. The author argues that establishing courts by statute, trying cases by statute, the procedure for appointing judges, and the judge impeachment system should be recognized as one of public participation in the justice system. Section 3 outlines various public participation systems in civil justice, as well as analyzes their meaning. It should be noted that expertise is commonly expected in civil justice, though laymanship is pursued in criminal justice. In conclusion, it was found that rationales for public participation in the justice system are not uniform but vary depending on whether the case is civil or criminal.