Eesti kohtute identiteet ja imago
Date
2009
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tartu Ülikool
Abstract
Description
The aim of the present master`s thesis „The identity and image of Estonian courts“ was
carrying out preliminary scientific analysis and laying the basis to a bigger project of
practical character focused on putting into practice the communication strategy of Estonian
courts. The thesis intends to create basis for further developing out strategy of specifying the
identity of courts and analyzing differences between their present and desired future image.
In the present research I have studied the present and desired identity and image of Estonian
courts by means of document analysis, interviews and secondary analyses of studies of
public opinion. I have made the basic conclusions from the point of view of communication
strategy. In the part dealing with the basis of comunication strategy I suggested formulations
to the mission and main values of Estonian courts as a result of the analyses of the used
research methods. The most significant target groups, stakeholders and general
communication goals concerning them have been brought out as well.
Basing on the views of Stompka (1999) I have brought out three levels of obtaining
confidence when communicating with courts: 1) institutional level – confidence in court
regarded as a consistent institution in its goals, values and fulfilling its public role 2)
procedure level – confidence in rules, ways and means of acting of courts and in the court
staff following these categories as well 3) a judge`s social role level – confidence in judges
as bearers of their highly esteemed social role and justifying the ethical demands that are
expected from them.
When analyzing factual and desired identity of courts it appeared that the present identity
coincides with the desired identity at a great extent. In the present cognition of identity
through the identity of judges there is still not desirably enough cognition of connectivity
between the social role and that what is really going on in the society. But changes towards
the desired identity have already started to take place. In the present day cognition of identity
we can also feel the wish to move on from the present closeness to greater openness, and
from the present slowness that we sometimes meet in qualitative judging; to judging in
discerning period of time. It is also essential to achieve greater sense of unity in the identity
of the whole court system and make communication practice between different target groups
more similar.
Courts apprehend their present identity through more positive keywords rather than through
their construed external image. The biggest gap between the present and desired image is that
the former can be characterized first of all as a sanctioner, the latter as a judge, helper and
protector. Another bigger gap between the present and desired image of courts is that
according to the present image they are seen as bureaucratic and complicated institutions as
desired image of them might be characterized as understanding, human and citizen-centered
one.
Humanity, focusing on citizens, proper and just treatment of people or changing court as an
istitution that is serving people friendlier, are the essential values that have arisen. Openness
as a value in itself also serves communicational purposes. The principle of openness of a
court should still be taken discerningly and carefully, avoiding excessive closeness causing
indefiniteness, notunderstanding, inconfidence and even fear when people have to contact
courts.
Although the prior target group of courts are the people involved in a trial, the importance of
communicating with more numerous general public cannot be underestimated either. It is
essential from the aspect of improvement of juridical knowledge of people, preventivity,
trustworthfulness of courts and desired image of courts on the whole. One means of
fulfilling the mission of courts is to be trustworty for people and esteemed by them.When
impartial and purposeful treatment can create positive image of court in people who are
involved in some juridical procedure, then general public sees courts more as an expert
system as described by Giddens (1990), and only a small part of the procedure, the main
essence of a sentence at the first place, influences the formation of a certain image. The goal
of courts should be giving more information about their activity to society that would
improve people`s general knowledge of law and would also contribute to the positive image
of the court system. It would mean more active forwarding of information to general public
concerning assizes, explanations of main principles of practical court work, statistics, e.t.c.
Communication of courts should have distinctive standpoints in the image-formation of
judges based on their main activity, i.e.being in the role of adjudicator, the so-called ideal
judge, meeting the needs of the ethic demands which they are expected to follow. It is very
important for courts and judges to be in touch with all sides of general public, to be aware of concerns of society, and that is why they should develop and improve social dialogue in
every way.
It is also essential for courts to communicate actively with media that has an immense
ifluence on public opinion, and with schoolchildren in order to raise new members of the socalled
society-for-citizen. Internet, all kind of informational publications and communicative
activities which enable direct contacts with people are also constantly becoming more
important channels of communication.
Keywords
H Social Sciences (General), magistritööd