Beyond the Myth of Legality? Framing Effects and Public Reactions to High Court Decisions in Europe

How do people respond to different decision-making processes in high courts? One long-standing view suggests that citizens expect courts be neutral arbiters of legal controversies. Although the relevance such “myth legality” has been challenged, we know very little about relationship between portrayals motives and justices public attitudes civil law countries. We explore this question a pair experiments Norway Portugal where isolate effects institutional frames from outcome favorability. find while partisan are detrimental fairness perceptions acceptance decisions, depictions judicial emphasize policy goals not adversely affect citizens’ responses comparison with legalistic frames. The results suggest that, even systems, preserving myth legality may necessary condition elicit support for decisions.