The Courts’ Public Image – The Desired Direction of Change

This paper proposes to scientifically explore notions of court identity, principles of shaping a court system’s image, and best practices in positive court image development relating to the courts in Poland.  It discusses the roles and responsibilities of inter-organizational networks in harmonizing diverse efforts to build a more positive court image.  It presents the results of a pilot project on court image development that considered the level of “maturity of courts” or how much forward progress various courts have made toward achieving an enhanced court image.  The paper uses several methods of scientific exploration including scholarly research to collect information about court image; empirical analysis of such research; personal examinations and observations of courts; and when best practices have been implemented in Polish courts, case studies to determine whether improved court images result from those practices.