Some Psychological Impacts on Judging in Criminal Cases within the Supreme Court of Cassation of the Republic of Serbia
Keywords:
Psychoanalytic Jurisprudence, Judicial Discretion, American Legal Realism, Jerome Frank, Andrew Watson
Abstract
Following hypothesis of Andrew Watson, American professor of Psychiatry and Law, the author analyses certain psychological impacts on behavior of judges and examines relation between their idiosyncrasies and their judicial decisions. The survey encompasses judges of Criminal Department of the Supreme Court of Cassation of the Republic of Serbia and, also, for comparative reasons, judges of Criminal Department of the First Basic Court in Belgrade. Considering main issues there is no great discrepancy between answers given by judges of the Supreme Court and of the Basic Court. Most responses of Serbian judges deviate from Watson`s conclusions, namely: they do not admit that they feel frustrated due to heavy caseloads, the significant majority of judges are reluctant to acknowledge their prejudices and influence of biases on their ruling, the significant majority of judges are not burdened with the idea of possible misuse of their discretion, they nearly unanimously deny that public opinion and media pressure affect their rulings, etc. Generally, judges in Serbia are not willing to admit that they cannot always overcome their own subjectivities.
References
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36. Zekavica, R., & Simović, D. (2017). Police Perceptions of Discrimination in Serbia. Revija za kriminalistiko in kriminologijo, 68(4), 317–332.
2. Avramović, D. (2012). Odluka ili norma – slobodno sudijsko uverenje kao pretnja vladavini prava [Decision or Norm – Judicial Discretion as a Treat to the Rule of Law]. Collected Papers of the Faculty of Law in Novi Sad, 46(2), 311–325.
3. Avramović, D. (2018). Analiza predvidljivosti postupanja sudija – povratak mehaničkoj jurisprudenciji? [Predictive Analysis of Judicial Behavior – Return to Mechanical Jurisprudence?]. Crimen, 9(2), 155–167.
4. Bernays Wiener, F. (1962). Decision Prediction by Computers: Nonsense Cubed–and Worse. American Bar Association Journal, 48(11), 1023–1028.
5. Bienenfeld, F. R. (1965). Prolegomena to a Psychoanalysis of Law and Justice: Introduction. California Law Review, 53(4), 960–1028.
6. Chase, A. (1979). Jerome Frank and American Psychoanalytic Jurisprudence. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 2(1), 29–54.
7. Cohen, F. (1935). Transcendental Nonsense and the Functional Approach. Columbia Law Review, 35(6), 809–849.
8. Dondero, B. (2017). Justice predictive: la fin de l'alea judiciaire?. Recueil Dalloz, 10, 532–538.
9. Ehrenzweig, A. (1971). Psychoanalytic Jurisprudence. New York: Oceana.
10. Frank, J. (1953). Judicial Fact-Finding and Psychology. Ohio State Law Journal, 14(2), 183–189.
11. Frank, J. (1973). Courts on Trial. New Jersey (USA): Princeton University Press.
12. Frank, J. (2009). Law and the Modern Mind. New Brunswick (USA) and London (U.K.): Transaction publishers.
13. Goldstein, J. (1968). Psychoanalysis and Jurisprudence. Yale Law Journal, 77(6), 1053–1077.
14. Ihering, R. (1913). Law as Means to an End. Boston: The Boston Book Company.
15. Llewellyn, K. (1931). Legal Illusion. Columbia Law Review, 31(1), 82–90.
16. Milenković, D. (2018, September 16). Lični integritet čuva sudije od pritiska [Personal Integrity keeps Judges from the Pressure]. Blic. Retrieved February 3, 2019, from https://www.blic.rs/vesti/drustvo/intervju-dusko-milenkovic-predsednik-apelacionog-suda-licni-integritet-cuva-sudije-od/jtg05fm.
17. Milojević, D. (2019, January 1). Za silovatelje i napasnike kazne moraju biti oštrije [The Punishments for Rapists and Temters must be more severe], Blic. Retrieved February 3, 2019, from https://www.blic.rs/vesti/hronika/intervju-dragomir-milojevic-za-silovatelje-i-napasnike-kazne-moraju-biti-ostrije/egkkpkw.
18. Myers, M. (1988). Social Background and the Sentencing Behavior of Judges. Criminology, 26(4), 649–676.
19. Nagel, S. (1962). Judicial Backgrounds and Criminal Cases. Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, 53(3), 333–339.
20. Novak, M. (2016). The Type Theory of Law – An Essay in Psychoanalytic Jurisprudence. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing.
21. Petrazhickij, L. (1909). Teorija prava i gosudarstva v svjazi s teoriej nravstvennosti [Theory of law and state in connection with the theory of morality], Saint Petersburg: Tip. T-va “Ekateringof. Pechat. Delo”.
22. Konečni & Ebbesen (1984). The Mythology of Legal Decision Making. International journal of Law and Psychiatry, 7(1), 5–18.
23. Posner, R. (2010). How Judges Think. Cambridge, MA (USA): Harvard University Press.
24. Ross, A. (1959). On Law and Justice. Berkeley–Los Angeles: University of California Press.
25. Schoenfeld, C. G. (1964). Psychoanalysis and Natural Law: Some Preliminary Observations. Howard Law Journal, 10(2), 277–284.
26. Sheleff, L. Sh. (1986). The Illusion of Law – Psychoanalysis and Jurisprudence in Historical Perspective. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 9(2), 143–158.
27. Supreme Court of Cassation. (2019). Annual Report on the work of the courts in the Republic of Serbia for 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2019, from https://www.vk.sud.rs/sites/default/files/attachments/Annual%20Report%20on%20the%20Work%20Of%20Courts%202018.pdf.
28. Sutherland, E., & Cressey, D. (1978). Criminology. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company.
29. Tetlock, Ph., Bernzweig, J., & Gallant, J. (1985). Supreme Court Decision Making: Cognitive Style as a Predictor of Ideological Consistency of Voting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 48(5), 1227–1239.
30. Vračar, S. (1999). Lav J. Petražicki – predvodnik psihologizma u jurisprudenciji [Leon J. Petrazycki – leader of psychologism in jurisprudence]. In: L. J. Petražicki, Teorija prava i morala [Theory of Law and Moral] (pp. 611–626). Beograd–Podgorica–Novi Sad: Službeni list SRJ –CID–Izdavačka knjižnica Z. Stojanovića.
31. Vračar, S. (2000). Zasnivanje psihoanalitičke jurisprudencije [Establishment of Psychoanalytic Jurisprudence]. In: S. Vračar, Preispitivanje pravne metodologije – nagoveštaji državno-pravnog integralizma [Review of legal methodology – hints of state-law integralism] (pp. 638 –658). Beograd: Pravni Fakultet u Beogradu–Službeni list SRJ.
32. Vukadinovic, G., & Mitrović, D. (2019). Uvod u teoriju i filozofiju prava [Introduction to Theory and Philosophy of Law]. Beograd: Dosije.
33. Watson, A. (1969). Review of the book Psychiatry and the Dilemmas of Crime, by S. L. Hallek. Indiana Law Journal, 44(2), 324–331.
34. Watson, A. (1988). Some Psychological Aspects of the Trial Judge's Decision-Making. Mercer Law Review, 39(3), 937–960.
35. Watson, A. (1992). The Evolution of Legal Methods for Dealing with Mind-State in Crimes. Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, 20(2), 211–220.
36. Zekavica, R., & Simović, D. (2017). Police Perceptions of Discrimination in Serbia. Revija za kriminalistiko in kriminologijo, 68(4), 317–332.