Introduction

Whereas previous studies of legitimacy and trust have mostly dealt with procedural justice and the police, this book focuses on other crucial understudied aspects of legitimacy within criminal law, policy and criminal justice.

The chapters expand and develop current criminological, legal and socio-legal research by addressing conceptions of legitimacy linked to criminal law norms, criminalisation and sanctioning; by examining EU legal and policy aspects of the phenomenon; and by exploring some specific court-related issues of legitimacy and trust, hitherto neglected.

With contributions from across the EU, this interdisciplinary collection presents a valuable discussion on the importance of trust in legal institutions of modern democracies and suggests ideas for future research in this area to challenge ways of thinking about legitimacy.