Disputes in Japan: A cross-cultural test of the procedural justice model

Research on procedural justice has provided ample evidence that people are concerned not only with the outcome of disputes but also with the fairness of the procedures used to resolve disputes. The majority of the studies examining the importance of procedural justice have been conducted in the United States and Western European countries. This study tests the generality of the procedural justice model by examining the importance of fair procedures to people in a non-Western country, Japan. This study also examines the meaning of a fair procedure from a legal perspective. Past studies have drawn the procedural justice criteria considered from social psychology. We examine several additional criteria derived from the legal concept of due process of law. Results indicate that fair procedures are more important to subjects than fair outcomes in both a traffic accident dispute and a breach of contract case. Furthermore, across both types of disputes, fairness concerns are more important than nonfairness concerns. These results are consistent with findings from studies conducted in Western countries. A new finding that emerges from the study is that the clarity with which a procedure is formulated and presented is a strong determinant of procedural justice judgments.     

Bread and roses: Justice and the distribution of financial and socioemotional rewards in organizations

Two studies tested the hypothesis that organizational decision makers attempt to counterbalance contribution-based distributions of financial/material rewards (a “merit” system that creates monetary inequality) with need- and equality-based allocations of socioemotional rewards, in effect allocating “roses” in lieu of more “bread”. Experiment 1 had a two-factor design (Reward Type × Magnitude of Income Inequality); 67 subjects were given a managerial in-basket exercise in which they expressed their preferences for a variety of distributive justice rules for seven different types of rewards. Experiment 2 (N=39) had the same design, with a stronger manipulation of magnitude of inequality. Results of the two experiments were consistent with the counterbalancing hypothesis, irrespective of magnitude of income inequality; financially related rewards (e.g., profit sharing, office space, company cars) were distributed with more emphasis on contribution rules (i.e., performance, status), while more socioemotional rewards (e.g., help for an employee's spouse, friendliness) were allocated with more emphasis on equality among individuals, equality across groups, and personal need.     

Opening a window into police internal affairs: Impact of procedural justice reform on third-party attitudes

The study explores the impact of a procedural innovation on justice judgments made by third party observers. The innovation involved the establishment of a review panel with civilian participants to monitor a police department's investigation of allegations of misconduct against its officers. The study distinguishes the impact on racial minority observers from that on racial majority observers. Data suggest that the innovation had a positive, though differing, impact on the justice judgments of both minority and majority observers.     

Perceptions of global inequality: a call for research

In light of media attention to and growing public awareness of the globalizing economy, a case for the expanded empirical investigation of public perceptions of international income distribution and inequality is presented. Theoretical issues to be illuminated by such studies are considered; exploratory qualitative data are provided to illustrate the rich potential of such research; and a variety of issues that must be addressed when conducting future research in this area are reviewed.     

程序正义如何才能实现--佘祥林案的个案分析及其启示

佘祥林案存在的问题反映了中国司法活动过程中最具代表性的问题,即程序的非正义性.要实现程序正义,有赖于司法主体摒弃"有罪推定"的传统思维定势,坚持"无罪推定"的司性理性;有赖于司法者坚持司法自治原则,排除外力干扰,依法独立办案;同时也有赖于司法者坚持法律至上性,依法保障诉权的实现.这三个问题也是限制当前中国司法秩序建设的关键性因素.一个良好的司法秩序只能靠法治,有法律规制的程序正义才是司法秩序健康发展的根本保障.     

论人与自然关系的法律化

当代人与自然关系存在阻碍生产力发展的趋势,不符合社会正义原则,违背了国家在人与自然关系上必须承担的国家契约义务;第三次法律革命的直接结果就是人与自然关系成为法律调整的对象。在此基础上,本文论证了法律调整人与自然关系的正当性和必要性。     

贪污罪与死刑的适用

对贪污罪适用死刑违背了刑罚的公正性,侵犯了罪犯的人格,实践中也收不到预防犯罪的良好效果,但就我国现阶段所处的条件而言,又不宜立即予以废除,因此我们只能采取先从技术上严格控制直至最后完全废除的刑事政策。     

Beautiful Day: Awakening to Responsibility

Recently published works, such Elaine Scarry's On Beauty and Being Just, have suggested the natural confederacy of the sensory appreciation of beauty and the achievement of social justice. Scarry (amongst others) has proposed that the opiated moment in which one is arrested by beauty's spell results in a ‘radical decentrification’, where under they who behold beauty are awakened to alterity and, consequentially, encouraged to realize an ethical agenda based upon just (sic) relations between people. The present article refutes the adequacy of the beauty - ethics - justice triptych and, instead, proposes that the entire variegated aesthetic quantum operates as the medium through which recognition of (in)justice reminds us of our responsibility to the other. As essentially inarticulate concepts, justice and responsibility are capable of ‘speaking’ to us through the channel of the aesthetic. The aesthetic is the plane of dialogue on which our felt appreciation of (in)justice prompts us to responsibility. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Industrial Relations and Justice Ideologies in the Firm: A Justice-Based Explanation of Works Council Effectiveness

This paper investigates why the effectiveness of works councils varies across firms. Drawing on a large body of literature on justice in organizations, and on the basis of the premise of methodological individualism, we present the groundwork for a justice-based theory of workplace codetermination. The theory focuses on workers' attitudes toward justice in organizations, the structural reasons behind these attitudes, and their consequences for the effectiveness of codetermination. Results from a qualitative employee survey in four German firms provide first empirical support for the theory presented.     

修复性司法:构建和谐社会的一种路径

和谐的思想观念与修复性司法的“修复理念”相契合,为创设修复性司法制度奠定了丰厚的思想基础;修复性司法对构建和谐社会具有促进作用,可以成为构建和谐社会的一种路径。修复性司法在我国现阶段不应成为一个完全独立的司法制度,更不能完全取代传统刑事司法机制,而应与传统刑事司法机制一起成为统一的刑事司法体制下的既相互独立,又相互协调的两个有机组成部分。