民事诉讼法英文论文诉讼的社会学研究：观点和实例.pdf

EuropeanJournalof Law and Economics,2:379-385 (1995) 9 1995KluwerAcademicPublishers Sociological Research on Litigation: Perspectives and Examples FRANCISVANLOON Centrefor s ofLaw, Uniwrs/~of~b~werp (UFSL4) STEPHANE DELRUE Centrefor ,f~cioloo ofLaw, Uniwrsiu7ofAn~,erp (UFSIA) WIM VANWAMBEKE Centrefor So~olo~ ofLaw, Unh~.s~ ofAntwerp (UFSIA) 1. Introduction This paper attempts to assess the significance of some perspectives of sociological research on litigation. The literature of sociology of law and litigation over the world covers literally tens of thousands of printed pages. The field is too vast to be able to review in depth all the major pieces of research done over the last thirty years. Instead, we focus on some areas and perspectives of research, illustrated with some examples. Of course, many studies are a combination of different perspectives and areas, eventuaUy with an emphasis on one of them. If we make an overview of the most important areas of research dealt with in litigation research in the United States and Western Europe, three major issues draw our attention. Neither this list nor the cited literature is, of course, exhaustive. First of all, a lot of research studies in civil litigation focus on the socialprocess of dis- putes and the dynamics of thisprocess. They study the way in which problems become transformed into legal claims (F,eistiner, Abel and Sarat, 1980-1981; Van Loon and Wouters, 1992). Disputes are, indeed, not static; they evolve as they travel through a pyramid of transformation (Galanter, 1986). The reconstruction of this pyramid was and still is a major issue in litigation research. The study of the role andfunction of different actors during the litigation process forms a second iss