Justice as a pillar of quality of life: distribution of trust in justice across European countries

Abstract

A well-functioning and trustworthy justice system is the fundamental prerequisite of civil society. Yet, in many countries, the justice system suffers from corruption and ineffectiveness, and citizens might perceive judges and prosecutors as dishonest and/or incompetent. Our analysis tackles this problem and explores how citizens’ trust in their own country’s justice/legal system affects life satisfaction in 38 European countries. Data come primarily from the EuroBarometer, World Bank, and World Justice Project. Our findings show that citizens’ trust in justice is highly heterogeneous across European countries. However, cross-country trust in justice tends to be significantly consistent over time, and is substantially in tune with the indicators of quality of justice/legal systems provided by international agencies and based on experts’ evaluations. Lastly, trust in justice impacts life satisfaction, and its impact is greater than that of trust in the other two branches of government organization, namely the executive and the legislative.