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Parliamentary casework in socio-legal perspective: a case study of complaint handling by Members of the Scottish Parliament

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Published/Copyright: July 8, 2023
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Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie
From the journal Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie Volume 43 Issue 1

Abstract

This article is concerned with parliamentary casework, the process through which parliamentarians deal with individual problems raised by their constituents. Casework has principally been studied by political scientists, and the article makes a case for the value in adopting a socio-legal approach. In doing so, one of the article’s contributions is to propose a distinctively sociolegal framing of the issues, along with a series of research questions to define the field and guide future study. The value of a socio-legal approach is demonstrated through a case study examining the casework of Members of the Scottish Parliament. The case study findings allow for a number of substantive contributions to be made to the casework literature. These include: providing a more granular account of parliamentarians’ casework role; highlighting the critical importance of casework staff to the delivery of casework; and showing the limited connections between casework and other parliamentary roles. The major contribution of the article is to propose a model of parliamentary casework which seeks to identify its key features as a mechanism of grievance resolution, highlighting how it connects to, and is distinct from, other forms of legal and administrative redress.

Zusammenfassung

Dieser Artikel befasst sich mit der parlamentarischen Fallarbeit, d. h. mit dem Prozess, in dem sich Parlamentarier:innen mit individuellen Problemen befassen, die von ihren Wähler:innen vorgebracht werden. Die Fallarbeit wurde bisher vor allem in der Politikwissenschaft untersucht, und der Artikel plädiert für einen rechtssoziologischen Ansatz. Dabei besteht einer der Beiträge des Artikels darin, dass er eine eindeutig rechtssoziologische Rahmung der Probleme vorschlägt, zusammen mit einer Reihe von Forschungsfragen, um das Feld zu definieren und zukünftige Studien zu leiten. Der Wert eines rechtssoziologischen Ansatzes wird anhand einer Fallstudie demonstriert, in der die Fallarbeit von Mitgliedern des schottischen Parlaments untersucht wird. Die Ergebnisse der Fallstudie ermöglichen es, eine Reihe von wesentlichen Beiträgen zur Literatur über Fallarbeit zu leisten. Dazu gehören: eine detailliertere Darstellung der Rolle der Parlamentarier:innen in der Fallarbeit, die Hervorhebung der entscheidenden Bedeutung der Mitarbeiter:innen in der Fallarbeit für die Erledigung der Fallarbeit und das Aufzeigen der begrenzten Verbindungen zwischen der Fallarbeit und anderen parlamentarischen Aufgaben. Der Hauptbeitrag des Artikels besteht darin, ein Modell der parlamentarischen Fallarbeit vorzuschlagen, das versucht, ihre Hauptmerkmale als Mechanismus zur Beilegung von Beschwerden zu identifizieren und herauszustellen, wie sie mit anderen Formen des Rechts- und Verwaltungsrechtsschutzes zusammenhängt und sich von diesen unterscheidet.

Keywords: Parliamentary casework; complaint handling; access to justice; administrative justice; socio-legal research; political redress

Acknowledgments

The research on which this article is based was conducted with support from a Scottish Parliament Academic Fellowship.

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Published Online: 2023-07-08
Published in Print: 2023-07-07

© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Soziologie der Ombudsstellen
  3. Soziologie der Beschwerde und Beschwerdestelle
  4. Introduction
  5. Enacting the Ombud’s Roles: A Study Based on Text Mining
  6. The impact of parental complaints on teachers working within Scottish schools during Covid-19
  7. Parliamentary casework in socio-legal perspective: a case study of complaint handling by Members of the Scottish Parliament
  8. Cultural patterns of disputing behaviour?
  9. It’s All About the Money. Or Is It?
  10. Abhandlungen
  11. Ökonomisierung des Strafverfahrens?
  12. Rezensionen
  13. Doris Schweitzer, Juridische Soziologien. Recht und Gesellschaft von 1814 bis in die 1920er Jahre. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2021. 664 Seiten, 74,00€.
  14. Timon Beyes, Wolfgang Hagen, Claus Pias und Martin Warnke (Hg.), Niklas Luhmann am OVG Lüneburg. Zur Entstehung der Systemtheorie. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 2021. ISBN 978-3-428-15932-1, 136 Seiten, 39,90€.
  15. Berichte/Ankündigungen
  16. Eine hochspezialisierte Virtuelle Fachbibliothek für die internationale und interdisziplinäre Rechtsforschung – DFG-gefördert sowie kostenfrei und überregional zugänglich
https://doi.org/10.1515/zfrs-2023-2004
Keywords for this article
Parliamentary casework; complaint handling; access to justice; administrative justice; socio-legal research; political redress

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Titelseiten
  2. Soziologie der Ombudsstellen
  3. Soziologie der Beschwerde und Beschwerdestelle
  4. Introduction
  5. Enacting the Ombud’s Roles: A Study Based on Text Mining
  6. The impact of parental complaints on teachers working within Scottish schools during Covid-19
  7. Parliamentary casework in socio-legal perspective: a case study of complaint handling by Members of the Scottish Parliament
  8. Cultural patterns of disputing behaviour?
  9. It’s All About the Money. Or Is It?
  10. Abhandlungen
  11. Ökonomisierung des Strafverfahrens?
  12. Rezensionen
  13. Doris Schweitzer, Juridische Soziologien. Recht und Gesellschaft von 1814 bis in die 1920er Jahre. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2021. 664 Seiten, 74,00€.
  14. Timon Beyes, Wolfgang Hagen, Claus Pias und Martin Warnke (Hg.), Niklas Luhmann am OVG Lüneburg. Zur Entstehung der Systemtheorie. Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 2021. ISBN 978-3-428-15932-1, 136 Seiten, 39,90€.
  15. Berichte/Ankündigungen
  16. Eine hochspezialisierte Virtuelle Fachbibliothek für die internationale und interdisziplinäre Rechtsforschung – DFG-gefördert sowie kostenfrei und überregional zugänglich
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