Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T01:37:02.786Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Infrastructure for Avoiding Civil Litigation: Comparing Cultures of Legal Behavior in The Netherlands and West Germany

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Erhard Blankenburg
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

At first sight, the vastly different litigation frequencies in West Germany and The Netherlands present a riddle, as both countries have a legal system tradition in common and their baseline of potentially litigious conflicts is very much alike. This study tries to find an explanation by disaggregating various kinds of civil procedures. The distinguishing variables are found in the presence or absence of institutions filtering disputes at the pretrial stage. While in The Netherlands plaintiffs are offered a bigger set of alternatives for dispute resolution, the German court system, being very cost efficient, attracts masses of petty claims. Thus, it is unnecessary to look for attitudinal differences or even different “litigation mentalities” in the neighboring cultures. The institutional infrastructure is sufficient to explain why it is rational for Germans to use the courts and for the Dutch to avoid them.

Type
Legal Process and Civic Culture: Examining the Link
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 28 , Issue 4 , 1994 , pp. 789 - 808
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by The Law and Society Association.

References

Berends, Miek (1992) “An Elusive Profession? Lawyers in Society” 26 Law & Society Rev. 161.Google Scholar
Black, Donald J. (1973) “The Mobilization of Law,” 2 J. of Legal Studies 125.Google Scholar
Blankenburg, Erhard (1985) “Indikatorenvergleich der Rechtskulturen in der Bundesrepublik und den Niederlanden,” 6 Zeitschrift für Rechtssoziologie 255.Google Scholar
Blankenburg, Erhard, ed. (1988) Prozeβflut? Studien zur Prozesstatigkeit Europaischer Gerichte in historischen Zeitreihen und im Rechtsvergleich. Köln:: Bundesanzeiger Verlag: Bundesanzeiger Verlag.Google Scholar
Blankenburg, Erhard_(1993) “Private Insurance as a New Wave of the Legal Aid Movement,” in Windsor Yearbook of Access to Law. Publisher, city?.Google Scholar
Blankenburg, Erhard, Morasch, Hellmut, & Wolff, Heimfried (1974) Tatsachen zur Reform der Zivilgerichtsbarkeit, ed. by Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer, . Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr.Google Scholar
Blankenburg, Erhard, & Verwoerd, Jan (1988) “Prozeβhäufigkeiten in den Niederlanden und Nordrhein-Westfalen 1970–1984,” in Blankenburg 1988.Google Scholar
Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer (ed.) (1974) Strukturanalyse der Zivilgerichtsbarkeit, 2 vols. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr.Google Scholar
Clark, David S. (1990) “Civil Litigation Trends in Europe and Latin America since 1945: The Advantage of Intracountry Comparisons,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 549.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Jeffrey (1982) A Comparative Empirical Study of Potential Disputes in Australia and the United States. Disputes Processing Research Program Working Paper #1982-4, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Friedman, Lawrence M. (1975) The Legal System. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc (1983) “Reading the Landscape of Disputes: What We Know and Don't Know (and Think We Know) about Our Allegedly Contentious and Litigious Society,” 31 UCLA Law Rev. 4.Google Scholar
Galanter, Marc (1992) The Debased Debate on Civil Justice, Dispute Processing Program Working Paper #10-10, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
Ietswaart, Heleen F. P. (1990) “The International Comparison of Court Caseloads: The Experience of the European Working Group,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 571.Google Scholar
Johnson, Earl, Block, Steven, Felstiner, William L. F., Hansen, E. W., & Sabagh, Georges (1977) A Comparative Analysis of the Statistical Dimensions of the Justice System of Seven Industrial Democracies. Los Angeles: Univ. of Southern California.Google Scholar
Prognos (1989/1991) “Mögliche Entwicklungen im Zusammenspiel von auβerund innergerichtlichen Konfliktregelungen,” Basel, partly published in: Speyrer Forschungsberichte 88/1990.Google Scholar
Raken, A, & Otto, M. (1987) “De betalingsbevelprocedure in Amsterdam,” 2 Justitiële verkenningen 36.Google Scholar
Savigny, Savigny Friedrich Carl (1840–49) System des heutigen römischen Rechts. Berlin: Veit.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanase, Takao (1990) “The Management of Disputes: Automobile Accident Compensation in Japan,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 651.Google Scholar