Public Mistrust of the Justice System and Legal Mobilization in Latin America

• In Event: Accessing Justice Amidst Inequality: Claims-Making in the Global South

Abstract

How do citizen perceptions of judicial institutions relate to their engagement with/mobilization of law and courts to redress harms and claim rights? Surveys show that in many Latin American democracies, people express little confidence in judicial institutions, despite massive expenditures on judicial reform projects and, in some cases, significant improvement in institutional performance indicators in the judicial sector. Conventional theories hold that citizens who have confidence in the judicial system will be more likely to cooperate with or seek recourse through legal institutions (Roberts and Stalans 1997; Tyler, Boeckmann, Smith, & Huo 1997; Tyler & Huo 2002; Tyler 2006), while those with low levels of institutional trust are more likely to express greater acceptance of or engagement in illegal behavior, including lethal vigilantism (Nivette 2016). Drawing on data from sixteen focus groups conducted in Chile and Colombia in 2017, this article explores if, how, and why negative perceptions of the justice system translate into choices about engagement with state judicial institutions, as well as how citizens explain their engagement, or disengagement, with judicial institutions in which they don’t trust. Based on our focus group findings, and consistent with work on other developing countries by Hendley (2012; 2017) and Gallagher (2006), we argue that citizens’ decisions to mobilize law and courts are quite independent of their confidence in the justice system. As suggested by Booth and Seligson’s (2009) work on legitimacy in Latin America, low levels of institutional trust do not necessarily discourage people, even those in disadvantaged groups, from engaging the system and claiming their rights, though we find they may not do so with an expectation of effective redress. Indeed, many who express little faith in the judiciary would nonetheless pursue a legal process to reaffirm their status and agency as citizens, force the state to recognize their situation, and/or put official abuses on the record. 

Authors

• Lisa Hilbink, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

• Valentina Salas, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities