Abstract

According to many scholars, studying judicial systems means dealing with its structural and functional configurations. Differently, as some contemporary authors propose to do applying the approach of the political science and the organizational studies, the analysis of justice systems is devoted to fully grasp the interactions that connect the law to justice, as public service offered to the citizens. Overcoming the limits of a purely legal and formal approach, the political science driven approach to the organization of justice systems aims to trace the concrete and real interaction among actors, powers and resources that is crucial to understand the contemporary functioning of the justice systems. In this scenario, the article aims to reflect on the added value, both at theoretical and empirical level, of a shifting from a structural approach to a systemic-procedural one in the judicial studies. The article, based on direct experience in empirical research and on subsequent results, deals with three theoretical questions: 1. what does it mean to study justice systems as complex organizations? 2. Why is it necessary to move from the study of “judicial systemsµ to the analysis of the “justice systemsµ, overcoming the boundaries of judicial offices? 3. How could the integration of concepts and methods from both political science and organizational studies support the development of new research perspectives and topics?