Familiarity breeds respect: Organizing and studying a courtwatch

Abstract

Like hospitals, courts are usually places you do not want to see. Litigants are there under unpleasant circumstances, such as being involved in crime or seeking redress for private wrongs, and witnesses and jurors are often there reluctantly. Nevertheless, compared with other branches of government; the judiciary has enjoyed continuous high public support, probably because this is the only opportunity individual people get to affect the operation of a governmental function personally. In court, a single person's complaint is sufficient to evoke a full hearing, which is not the case in legislative or executive realms (Zemans, 1991). In court, the citizen and the government are at their closest, directly interacting, with judges making decisions of direct personal significance to the citizen.