Student Perceptions of the Premise of the Comprehensive Law Movement. Research Report

Abstract

The increasing crisis of the public judiciary, associated with the excessive length of court proceedings, the decline in public confidence in the institution and its excessive formalization, encourages the need to seek alternative methods of conflict resolution. According to the author, the answer to the above is the implementation of an innovative legal movement functioning under the name of Comprehensive Law Movement. The above-mentioned movement is based on the principles of positive influence of law, it promotes the development of internal virtues and at the same time revalorizes therapeutic elements in the process of law practice. In view of the multi-faceted nature of the application and social operation of law, holistic lawyers use a range of tools that constitute the modules of the Comprehensive Law Movement, such as Therapeutic jurisprudence, Procedural justice, Holistic justice, Creative problem solving, Preventive law, Collaborative law, Transformative Mediation, Restorative justice and Problem-solving courts. The development of the Comprehensive Law Movement in Poland and Europe is determined by the involvement of the legal communities, the raising of awareness of alternative methods of dispute resolution and appropriate therapeutically-oriented legal education. In order to study the possibility of implementation of the movement’s elements, research was conducted to examine the potential recipients’ attitudes towards the assumptions of the individual modules. The article describes the methods and presents the results of the conducted social research, with an indication of the influence of legal education and predispositions to perform particular legal careers on the acceptance of the various modules of the Comprehensive Law Movement.