Why the "Haves" Come out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change

In my contribution to the first part of this collection I suggested that the character and impact of litigation might be best understood if, rather than starting from consideration of rules or of institutional processes, we began by looking at the parties and their relation to dispute institutions. I introduced a simple distinction between those actors in society who have many occasions to utilize the courts (in the broad sense) to make (or defend) claims and those parties who do so only rarely. Parties who have only occasional recourse to the courts I called one-shotters (henceforth, OS) and parties engaged in a large number of similar litigations over time repeat-players (RPs). I then argued that an RP might be expected to play the litigation game differently from an OS and that the RP would enjoy a number of advantages in the litigation process. Briefly, these advantages include: ability to structure the transaction; expertise, economies of scale, low start-up costs; informal relations with institutional incumbents; bargaining credibility; ability to adopt optimal strategies; ability to play for rules in both political forums and in litigation itself by litigation strategy and settlement policy; and ability to invest to secure penetration of favorable rules. We may visualize litigation in terms of various combinations

Afterword: explaining litigation*

/pdf/taking-the-state-to-court-public-interest-litigation-and-the-35baipjdqm.pdf

Taking the State to Court: Public Interest Litigation and the Public Sphere in Metropolitan India

This study of the entire phenomenon of civil litigation commenced with the sole aim of ascertaining the extant gaps in the available knowledge about litigation from the perspectives of those who are by far affected most by it: the litigants. What does litigation mean for those who are directly embroiled and whose lives may consequently be radically transformed? Serious lacunas exist. However, extensive readings worldwide throughout the research process result in a stark elucidation of an overlooked, yet crucially important and somewhat egregious state of affairs, making surprisingly clear just how pernicious litigation is for the average 'nonrepeat player'.

/pdf/civil-litigation-from-litigants-perspectives-what-we-know-131blddx2v.pdf

Civil Litigation from Litigants' Perspectives: What We Know and What We Don't Know About the Litigation Experience of Individual Litigants

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on India's Nyaya Panchayats system. India has a strong tradition of adjudication at the village level. The term panchayat literally means the coming together of five persons, therefore, the meeting, council, or court of five or more members of a village or caste assemble to judge disputes or to determine group policy. India's massive attempt to provide access to justice for its rural population through the promotion of Nyaya Panchayats (NP) that are village courts is both theoretically provocative and practically important. Yet it remains largely unexamined empirically and virtually unknown outside India. Completing a process of judicial reform started under colonial rule, India's post-Independence Constitution directed states to establish local self-government and to separate judicial and executive functions at the village level. Some states created NP with the intent to combine the virtues of traditional legal institutions (accessibility, informality, economy of time and money, and familiarity of legal norms) with those of the state legal system (impartiality, uniformity of law and procedures, and legitimacy). On the one hand, NPs were to be integral parts of the state judicial service; on the other, they were to assist Gaon Panchayats (village level administrative bodies) in administering village affairs and educating people about the new democratic order.

In Search of Nyaya Panchayats: The Politics of a Moribund Institution

(1973). Courts and conflict in an Indian city: A study in legal impact. Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies: Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 121-139.

Courts and conflict in an Indian city: A study in legal impact 1

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Courts and conflict in an Indian city: A study in legal impact 1