Conference Public law and procedural justice, 14 February 2013

Conference

Groningen Centre for Law & Governance
February 14, 2013

Public trust & public law

“Public Trust & Public Law” is a new research program at the Faculty of Law, University of Groningen. It focuses on issues of public law through the lens of trust, legitimacy, and procedural justice. The legitimacy of governments and that of the courts and other public institutions has gradually become a subject of public debate and some empirical studies argue that there is growing dissatisfaction with important elements and procedures of public law. This seems to suggest that, at least in some cases, public law no longer promotes public trust and sometimes public law procedures may even lead to a loss of public trust. Considering these developments, this research program focuses on the relation between public trust and public law. The central research question can be summarized in the following terms: How may public law promote public trust in government, trust among different bodies of government, and trust among different levels of government? The program focuses on the relation between public trust and public law in five different areas: political decision-making, regulation, procedural justice, state/ government structures and public enforcement & supervision. This multidisciplinary research program involves both several fields of national and international public law and several social sciences. Researchers participating in the program are active in the following academic disciplines: (Dutch and European) administrative law, constitutional law, public order law, legal philosophy, political science, public administration and sociology of law.

Read the program