| Summary: | "Judicial Reflection After the Childcare Benefits Scandal: Reparation of the Legal Dialogue"
This article explores dialogue in the administration of justice, more precisely law as dialogue. It studies the damage caused to that dialogue by court decisions contributing to the childcare benefits scandal, and the repair of that damage through the self-reflection project of the Administrative Law Division of the Council of State (the Division). We first clarify the meaning of "dialogue" and "reflection," then the dialogic nature of law and justice. After describing the benefits scandal, we critically evaluate the Division's attempt to restore the legal dialogue through reflection. That reflection project suffered from two important defects: first, it was largely shielded from the scrutiny of the external supervisory commission; secondly, the Division did not disclose its normal internal procedures, so any non-internal evaluation of the reflection operation’s impact will not be possible. Nevertheless, it is an unprecedented first step towards repairing this part of the social dialogue that is law.
|
|---|