Corti di giustizia e opinione pubblica: la fiducia nei sistemi giudiziari europei

This chapter explores citizens’ trust in the national judiciary systems of European Union countries. Trust in courts of justice plays an important role in fostering judicial decisions’ legitimacy promoting the efficiency of the judiciary as a whole, and ensuring democratic systems’ stability. The data used in this chapter are drawn from Eurobarometer surveys which, since 1997, have recorded EU citizens’ trust in a set of political and social institutions, including judicial ones; other information used relates to judicial system characteristics, such as judges’ effectiveness and independence. Findings suggest that trust in judicial institutions is associated, on the one hand, with certain features of judicial systems (mainly judges’ independence) and, on the other, respondent characteristics (such as level of education, assessment of democracy and, above all, trust in other political institutions).