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Exercising discretion in the context of dependent employment: assessing the impact of workload on the rule of law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Shelagh MR Campbell
Shelagh MR Campbell*
Affiliation:
University of Regina
*
Shelagh MR Campbell, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2. Email: Shelagh.Campbell@uregina.ca
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Abstract

Faced with growing pressures for accountability and increasing complexity of legal work, the international legal community has focused attention on support for the rule of law. Taking a workplace perspective, this study develops and tests an individual-level measure of support for the rule of law in the context of the Canadian public sector. Results from a national survey of government-employed lawyers reveal that increasing work demands have a detrimental effect on perceived ability to uphold the rule of law in the daily execution of work tasks. This negative pressure is moderated by social support in the workplace, with diminishing effect. Lawyers in criminal law practice appear more negatively affected by work demands than those in civil or common law practices.

Type
Research Article
Information
Legal Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 305 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 2017

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Footnotes

*

Research funding for this project came from Le Centre interuniversitaire sur la mondialization et le travail (CRIMT) and travel funding was provided by the Canadian Association of Crown Counsel. Dr Marie Josée Legault provided research support for the development, and assistance with the translation, of the survey instrument. I thank Dr Adrian Pitariu for assistance with Hayes' process test for moderation, and Kaila Bruer for research assistance.

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60. A summary of this analysis is not included, for brevity, but is available upon request.

61. The Keyser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was 0.842, indicating that the data are suitable for this type of analysis. In addition, Barlett's test of sphericity was significant (p < 0.001), indicating sufficient correlation between the items to proceed with analysis. Using a retention criterion of eigenvalues greater than one, a single-factor solution presents the clearest extraction, accounting for 55% of the total variance.

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63. At the federal level and in some provinces, prosecution services do not fall under the Attorney General, but under a Director of Public Prosecutions, accountable to the Legislature.

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