Connecting Compliance and Access to Justice Theories – a Hungarian Perspective

• In Event: Criminal Courts Policies and Practices

Abstract

Albeit researching compliance is a relatively new terrain of criminology, it has become an immensely widely researched topic both theoretically and empirically since then. According to the literature, one of the critical notions regarding compliance is legitimacy. Putting this notion to the centre, I argue that the Bottoms-Tankebe approach of Basic Legitimate Expectations – which are built upon the matter of criminal justice legitimacy and described as the expectations that people have of rightful power-holders, in other words, how these powerholders should behave – contains not just four (Procedural Justice, Lawfulness, Distributive Justice, Effectiveness), but presumably five aspects. My research aims to build a theoretical connection between compliance and access to justice theories - staying within the context of Hungary, focusing on the minorities (especially Roma people), since, as Anthony Bottoms and Justice Tankebe highlight, it is always relevant to consider the social context as these factors can and do vary upon that. For this aim, the paper is built on empirical experiences from reports and an interview with a legal professional working with the Roma. Findings show that we can identify a fifth aspect within the Hungarian context from Roma's perspective: "access" itself.

Author

• Eszter Kovács Szitkay, Centre for Social Sciences Institute for Legal Studies, Budapest, Hungary; University of Public Service Doctoral School of Law Enforcement, Budapest, Hungary