Datensatz

Zusammenfassung

This paper entertains the general assumption of the traditional role of the court as the chief adjudicator. It firstly aims at providing a brief historical account of the evolution of the role of the court. Albeit an ancient practice, adjudication in democratic societies has been transformed acquiring the four key attributes: access to justice, judicial independence, requirements of public processes, and the ideal of fair procedures. Accordingly, through examining these features, the paper attempts to identify what and how has shaped the aforementioned assumption. The paper places a particular focus on the publicity of processes (as synergistic with the obligations of fairness and independence) and looks into how the public adjudication stimulates participatory obligations, provides for the public oversight of legal authority, and to what extent the publicity of court proceedings contributes to the public perception of the courts as the leading justice providers. Ultimately, the aim of the paper is to set the stage for further discussion and open the floor for challenges to this expectation in those areas where the processes of outsourcing and delegation of judicial powers have taken place consequently leading to the removal of dispute resolution from the public view.