By Sharyn Roach Anleu and Kathy Mack*

Australians place a high value on the importance of courts, though public confidence in the courts and legal system is generally low. Very few Australians have any first-hand experience of their courts, suggesting that most of their information about courts and judges derives from print and electronic news and entertainment or what they are told about the experiences of other people. A disjuncture between the public’s high value of courts and low confidence in the justice system can present a profound challenge to Australia’s social fabric and its legal integrity. Closer analysis of public attitudes on a range of facets of judicial work generates a more nuanced and complex understanding of public opinion about the justice system.

The full article can be accessed here: “The work of the Australian judiciary: Public and judicial attitudes” (2010) 20 JJA 3.

* Sharyn Roach Anleu MA Tas LLB (Adel) Ph D (Conn) FASSA; Professor, School of Social and Policy Studies, Flinders University. Kathy Mack BA (Rice) JD (Stanford) LLM (Adel); Professor, Law School, Flinders University.