Hostname: page-component-54dcc4c588-smtgx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-09-15T17:35:23.220Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Influences of Social Organization on Dispute Processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

William L.F. Felstiner
William L.F. Felstiner*
Affiliation:
University of California Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Man is an ingenious social animal. Institutionalized responses to interpersonal conflict, for instance, stretch from song duels and witchcraft to moots and mediation to self-conscious therapy and hierarchical, professionalized courts. The dispute processing practices prevailing in any particular society are a product of its values, its psychological imperatives, its history and its economic, political and social organization. It is unlikely that any general theory encompassing all of these factors will be developed until there have been many piecemeal attempts to understand something of the influence of each.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 9 , Issue 1: Litigation and Dispute Processing: Part I , Fall 1974 , pp. 63 - 94
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 The Law and Society Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

I received substantial encouragement in working through this analysis from Jan Collier, Richard Danzig, Robert Stevens and David Trubek and valuable direction from Richard Abel, Celestine Arndt, Richard Canter, Marc Galanter, Robert Kidder and Mark Peterson.

References

ABEL, Richard L. (1974) “A Comparative Theory of Dispute Institutions in Society,” 8 Law & Society Review 217.Google Scholar
ABELSON, Robert P. (1968) “Psychological Implications,” in Robert P., ABELSON et al. (eds.) Theories of Cognitive Consistency: A Sourcebook. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
ABNER, Willoughby (1969) “Conflict in a Free Society,” Presented at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.Google Scholar
ADAMS, Bert N. (1971) The American Family: A Sociological Interpretation. Chicago: Markham.Google Scholar
ALEXANDER, Christopher (1966) The City as a Mechanism for Sustaining Human Contact. Berkeley: Institute of Urban & Regional Development, University of California.Google Scholar
AUBERT, Vilhelm (1969) “Law as a Way of Resolving Conflicts: The Case of a Small Industrialized Society,” in Laura, NADER (ed.) Law in Culture and Society. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
AUBERT, Vilhelm (1963) “Competition and Dissensus: Two Types of Conflict and of Conflict Resolution,” 7 Journal of Conflict Resolution 26.Google Scholar
AXELROD, Morris (1956) “Urban Structure and Social Participation,” 21 American Sociological Review 13.Google Scholar
BALDERMAN, Evelyn (1974) “Jewish Courts.” Unpublished manuscript in the custody of the U.C.L.A. Law School Library.Google Scholar
BARD, Morton (1973) “The Role of Law Enforcement in the Helping System,” in John R., SNIBBE and Homa M., SNIBBE (eds.) The Urban Policeman in Transition. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
BARNES, J.A. (1961) “Law as Politically Active,” in Geoffrey, SAWYER (ed.) Studies in the Sociology of Law. Canberra: Australian National University Press.Google Scholar
BEALS, Alan R. (1961) “Cleavage and Internal Conflict: An Example from India,” 5 Journal of Conflict Resolution 27.Google Scholar
BELL, Wendell (1968) “The City, the Suburb, and a Theory of Social Choice,” in Scott, GREER et al. (eds.) The New Urbanization. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
BELL, Wendell and Marion D., BOAT (1957) “Urban Neighborhoods and Informal Social Relations,” 62 American Journal of Sociology 391.Google Scholar
BLACK, Donald (1973) “The Boundaries of Legal Sociology,” in Donald, BLACK and Maureen, MILEWSKI (eds.) The Social Organization of Law. New York: Seminar Press.Google Scholar
BLUMER, Herbert (1969) Symbolic Interaction: Perspective and Method. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
BOHANNON, Paul (1957) Justice and Judgement Among the Tiv. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
BOTT, Elizabeth (1957) Family and Social Network. London: Tavistock Publications.Google Scholar
BOYER, Barry B. and Roger C., CRAMPTON (1974) “American Legal Education: An Agenda for Research and Reform,” 59 Cornell Law Review 221.Google Scholar
BRANDT, Victor S.R. (1971) A Korean Village between Farm and Sea. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BRUFF, Harold H. (1973) “Arizona's Inferior Courts,” [1973] Law and the Social Order 1.Google Scholar
BURGESS, Ernest W., Harvey J., LOCKE and Mary Margaret, THOMAS (1963) The Family: From Institution to Companionship (3rd ed.). New York: American Book Company.Google Scholar
CAHN, Edgar S. and Jean C., CAHN (1970) “Power to the People or the Profession?—The Public Interest in Public Interest Law,” 79 Yale Law Journal 1005.Google Scholar
CALIFORNIA LAW REVIEW (1964) “The California Small Claims Court,” 52 California Law Review 876.Google Scholar
CANTER, Richard S. (1973) “Consequences of Legal Engineering: A Case from Zambia.” Presented at the 72nd Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in New Orleans.Google Scholar
CARLIN, Jerome and Jan, HOWARD (1965) “Legal Representation and Class Justice,” 12 U.C.L.A. Law Review 381.Google Scholar
CARSTAIRS, G. Morris (1967) The Twice Born. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
COHEN, Jerome Alan (1967) “Chinese Mediation on the Eve of Modernization,” 2 Journal of Asian and African Studies 54.Google Scholar
COHEN, Percy S. (1968) Modern Social Theory. London: Heinemann Educational Books.Google Scholar
COHN, Bernard S. (1967) “Some Notes on Law and Change in North India,” in Paul, BOHANNON (ed.) Law and Warfare. Garden City: The Natural History Press.Google Scholar
COHN, Bernard S. (1965) “Anthropological Notes on Disputes and Law in India,” 67 American Anthropologist (pt. 2) 82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COLLIER, Jane Fishburne (1973) Law and Social Change in Zinacantan. Stanford: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COLUMBIA JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS (1970) “Rabbinical Courts: Modern Day Solomons,” 6 Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems 49.Google Scholar
DANZIG, Richard (1973) “Toward the Creation of a Complementary, Decentralized System of Criminal Justice,” 26 Stanford Law Review 1.Google Scholar
DOO, Leigh-Woo (1973) “Dispute Settlement in Chinese-American Communities,” 21 American Journal of Comparative Law 627.Google Scholar
EMMETT, Isabel (1964) A North Wales Village. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
EVANS-PRITCHARD, E.E. (1940) The Nuer. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
FOSTER, George M. (1960) “Interpersonal Relations in Peasant Society,” 19 Human Organization 174.Google Scholar
FRIEDMAN, Lawrence M. (1973) A History of American Law. New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
FRIEDMANN, Karl A. (1973) “Complaining—Comparative Aspects of Complaint Behavior and Attitudes Towards Complaining in Canada and Britain.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association in Montreal.Google Scholar
FULLER, Lon L. (1971) “Mediation—Its. Forms and Functions,” 44 Southern California Law Review 305.Google Scholar
FÜRER-HAIMENDORF, Christoph von (1967) Morals and Merit. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.Google Scholar
GALANTER, Marc (1975) “Why the ”Haves“ Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change,” 9 Law & Society Review 95.Google Scholar
GALANTER, Marc (1968) “The Displacement of Traditional Law in Modern India,” 24 Journal of Social Issues 65.Google Scholar
GALANTER, Marc (n.d.) “Private Alternatives to Official Dispute Processing: Newspaper Source Materials.” Buffalo: Faculty of Law and Jurisprudence, SUNY.Google Scholar
GANS, Herbert J. (1962) The Urban Villagers. New York: The Free Press of Glencoe.Google Scholar
GELLHORN, Walter (1966) When Americans Complain. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GIBBS, James L. Jr. (1969) “Law and Personality: Signposts for a New Direction,” in Laura, NADER (ed.) Law in Culture and Society. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
GIBBS, James L. Jr. (1967) “The Kpelle Moot,” in Paul, BOHANNON (ed.) Law and Warfare. Garden City: The Natural History Press.Google Scholar
GIBBS, James L. Jr. (1962) “Poro Values and Courtroom Procedures in a Kpelle Chiefdom,” 18 Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 341.Google Scholar
GILES, F.T. (1949) The Magistrates' Courts. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
GLUCKMAN, Max (1965) Politics, Law and Ritual in Tribal Society. New York: New American Library.Google Scholar
GLUCKMAN, Max (1955) The Judicial Process Among the Barotse of Northern Rhodesia. Manchester: The University Press.Google Scholar
GOUGH, E. Kathleen (1955) “The Social Structure of a Tanjore Village,” in McKim, MARRIOTT (ed.) Village India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
GRACE, Roger (1970) “Justice, Chinese Style,” 75 Case and Comment 50.Google Scholar
GREER, Scott (1962) The Emerging City. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
GREER, Scott (1956) “Urbanism Reconsidered,” 21 American Sociological Review 22.Google Scholar
GREUEL, Peter J. (1971) “The Leopard-Skin Chief: An Examination of Political Power Among the Nuer,” 73 American Anthropologist 1115.Google Scholar
GROSSMAN, Joel B. and Austin, SARAT (1973) “Courts and Conflict Resolution: Some Observations on the Choice of Dispute Settlement Forum and its Political Impact.” Presented at the IX World Congress of the International Political Science Association in Montreal.Google Scholar
GULLIVER, Philip H. (1969) “Introduction and Dispute Settlement Without Courts,” in Laura, NADER (ed.) Law in Culture and Society. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
GULLIVER, Philip H. (1963) Social Control in an African Society. Boston: Boston University Press.Google Scholar
HAGER, Philip (1972) “Neighborhood Court Judges Its Own Juvenile Offenders,” Los Angeles Times, Dec. 25, 1972.Google Scholar
HAHM, Pyong-Choon (1969) “The Decision Process in Korea,” in Glendon, SCHUBERT and Daniel J., DANIELSKI (eds.) Comparative Judicial Behavior. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
HIRSCHMAN, Albert (1970) Exit, Voice and Loyalty. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
HITCHCOCK, John T. (1960) “Surat Singh, Head Judge,” in Joseph B., CASAGRANDE (ed.) In the Company of Man. New York: Harper & Brothers.Google Scholar
HOWELL, P.O. (1954) A Manual of Nuer Law. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
HUNT, Eva and Robert, HUNT (1969) “The Role of Courts in Rural Mexico,” in Philip, BOCK (ed.) Peasants in the Modern World. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
JONES, Edgar A. Jr. (1964) “Power and Prudence in the Arbitration of Labor Disputes: A Venture in Some Hypotheses,” 11 U.C.L.A. Law Review 675.Google Scholar
KAUFMAN, Michael T. (1971) “Abbie Hoffman Accused Before a ‘Court’ of Peers,” New York Times, Sept. 2, 1971.Google Scholar
KAWASHIMA, Takeyoshi (1963) “Dispute Resolution in Contemporary Japan,” in VON MEHREN, Arthur T. (ed.) Law in Japan: The Legal Order in a Changing Society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
KIDDER, Robert L. (1973) “Courts and Conflict in an Indian City: A Study in Legal Impact,” 11 Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies 121.Google Scholar
KNOWLES, William H. (1958) “Mediation and the Psychology of Small Groups,” 9 Labor Law Journal 780.Google Scholar
LANSING, John B. and Nancy, BARTH (1964) Residential Location and Urban Mobility: A Multivariate Analysis. Ann Arbor: Institute for Social Relations, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
LESLIE, Gerald R. (1967) The Family in Social Context. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
LEWIS, Oscar (1965) “Further Observations on the Folk-Urban Continuum and Urbanization with Special Reference to Mexico City,” in Philip M., HAUSER and Leo F., SCHNORE (eds.) The Study of Urbanization. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
LIEBMAN, Donald A. and Jeffrey A., SCHWARTZ (1973) “Police Programs in Domestic Crisis Intervention: A Review,” in John R., SNIBBE and Homa M., SNIBBE (eds.) The Urban Policeman in Transition. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
LITWAK, Eugene (1960a) “Occupational Mobility and Extended Family Cohesion,” 25 American Sociological Review 9.Google Scholar
LITWAK, Eugene (1960b) “Geographic Mobility and Extended Family Cohesion,” 25 American Sociological Review 385.Google Scholar
LLEWELLYN, Karl N. and E. Adamson, HOEBEL (1941) The Cheyenne Way. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.Google Scholar
LOWY, Michael J. (1973) Review, 75 American Anthropologist 953.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LUBMAN, Stanley (1967) “Mao and Mediation: Politics and Dispute Resolution in Communist China,” 55 California Law Review 1284.Google Scholar
MAYER, Adrian C. (1960) Caste & Kinship in Central India. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGONAGLE, John J. Jr. (1972) “Arbitration of Consumer Disputes,” 27 Arbitration Journal 65.Google Scholar
METZGER, Duane (1960) “Conflict in Chulsanto,” 30 Alpha Kappa Deltan 35.Google Scholar
MILLER, Walter B. (1955) “Two Concepts of Authority,” 57 American Anthropologist 271.Google Scholar
MOORE, Sally Falk (1973) “Law and Social Change: The Semi-Autonomous Social Field as an Appropriate Subject of Study,” 7 Law & Society Review 719.Google Scholar
MOORE, Sally Falk (1970) “Politics, Procedures and Norms in Changing Chagga Law,” 60 Africa 321.Google Scholar
NADEL, S.F. (1951) The Foundations of Social Anthropology. London: Cohen & West.Google Scholar
NADER, Laura (1972) “Up the Anthropologist—Perspectives Gained from Studying Up,” in Dell, HYMES (ed.) Reinventing Anthropology. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
NADER, Laura (1969) “Styles of Court Procedure,” in Laura, NADER (ed.) Law in Culture and Society. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
NADER, Laura (1965) “The Anthropological Study of Law,” 67 American Anthropologist (pt. 2)3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NADER, Laura and Duane, METZGER (1963) “Conflict Resolution in Two Mexican Communities,” 65 American Anthropologist 584.Google Scholar
NADER, Laura and Barbara, YNGVESSON (1973) “On Studying the Ethnography of Law and Its Consequences,” in John J., HONIGMANN (ed.) Handbook of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
NELSON, Douglas (1949) “The Small Claims Court,” 22 Wisconsin Bar Bulletin 237.Google Scholar
NIMKOFF, M.R. and Russell, MIDDLETON (1968) “Types of Family and Types of Economy,” in Robert F., WINCH and Louis Wolf, GOODMAN (eds.) Selected Studies in Marriage and the Family (3rd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
PARSONS, Talcott (1965) “The Normal American Family,” in Seymour M., FARBER, Piero, MUSTACCHI and Rober H.L., WILSON (eds.) Man and Civilization: The Family's Search for Survival. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
PARSONS, Talcott (1951) Towards a General Theory of Action. New York: Harper & Row.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
POSPISIL, Leopold (1973) “Anthropology of Law: A Rejoinder to Lowy,” 75 American Anthropologist 1170.Google Scholar
POSPISIL, Leopold (1971) Anthropology of Law: A Comparative Theory. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
POSPISIL, Leopold (1967) “Legal Levels and Multiplicity of Legal Systems in Human Societies,” 11 Journal of Conflict Resolution 2.Google Scholar
POSPISIL, Leopold (1964) Kapauku Papuans and Their Law. New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press.Google Scholar
REISS, Ira L. (1971) The Family System in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
REISS, Paul J. (1962) “The Extended Kinship System: Correlates of and Attitudes on Frequency of Interaction,” 24 Marriage and Family Living 333.Google Scholar
ROBERTS, John M. (1965) “Oaths, Autonomic Ordeals, and Power,” 67 American Anthropologist (pt. 2) 186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ROSENBERG, Maurice (1965) “Court Congestion: Status, Causes and Proposed Remedies,” in H.W., JONES (ed.) The Courts, the Public and the Law Explosion. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
ROSENN, Keith S. (1971) “The Jeito: Brazil's Institutional Bypass of the Formal Legal System and Its Developmental Implications,” 19 American Journal of Comparative Law 514.Google Scholar
ROSSI, Peter Henry (1955) Why Families Move. Glencoe: The Free Press.Google Scholar
ROTHENBERGER, John E. (1970) “Law and Conflict Resolution, Politics and Change in a Sunni Moslem Village in Lebanon.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
RUDOLPH, Lloyd I. and Susanne Hoeber, RUDOLPH (1967) The Modernity of Tradition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
SCHLEGEL, Stuart A. (1970) Tiruray Justice. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
SCHWARTZ, Richard D. (1954) “Social Factors in the Development of Legal Control: A Case Study of Two Israeli Settlements,” 63 Yale Law Journal 471.Google Scholar
SEELEY, John R., R. Alexander, SIM and Elizabeth W., LOOSLEY (1956) Crestwood Heights: A Study of the Culture of Suburban Life. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
SHARP, Harry and Morris, AXELROD (1956) “Mutual Aid Among Relatives in an Urban Population,” in Ronald, FREEDMAN, et al, Principles of Sociology: A Test with Readings. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
SIEGAL, Bernard J. and Alan R., BEALS (1960) “Pervasive Factionalism,” 62 American Anthropologist 394.Google Scholar
SIMMONS, T.W. (1968) “Changing Residence in the City: a Review of Intraurban Mobility,” 58 Geographical Review 622.Google Scholar
SMITH, Reginald Heber (1924) “Report of the Committee on Small Claims Courts and Conciliation,” 22 Legal Aid Review 1.Google Scholar
SRINIVAS, M.N. (1954) “A Caste Dispute Among Washermen of Mysore,” 7 The Eastern Anthropologist 149.Google Scholar
STANFORD LAW REVIEW (1952) “Small Claims Courts as Collection Agencies,” 4 Stanford Law Review 237.Google Scholar
STATSKY, William P. (1974) “Community Courts: Decentralizing Juvenile Jurisprudence,” 3 Capital University Law Review 1.Google Scholar
STIRLING, P. (1957) “Land, Marriage and the Law in Turkish Villages,” 9 International Social Science Bulletin 21.Google Scholar
STOLZ, Preble (1968) “Insurance for Legal Services: A Preliminary Study of Feasibility,” 35 University of Chicago Law Review 417.Google Scholar
SUSSMAN, Marvin B. (1959) “The Isolated Nuclear Family: Fact or Fiction,” 6 Social Problems 333.Google Scholar
SYKES, Gresham M. (1969) “Cases, Courts, and Congestion,” in Laura, NADER (ed.) Law in Culture and Society. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
THE SMALL CLAIMS STUDY GROUP (1972) Little Injustices: Small Claims Courts and the American Consumer. Washington: The Center for Auto Safety.Google Scholar
TOCH, Hans (1973) “Change Through Participation (and Vice Versa),” in John R., SNIBBE and Homa M., SNIBBE (eds.) The Urban Policeman in Transition. Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas.Google Scholar
TOWNSEND, Peter (1957) The Family Life of Old People. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
TURNER, Ralph H. (1970) Family Interaction. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
VAN VELSEN, J. (1969) “Procedural Informality, Reconciliation, and False Comparisons,” in Max, GLUCKMAN (ed.) Ideas and Procedures in African Customary Law. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
WALD, Patricia M. and Robert L., WALD (1968) “Law and the Grievances of the Poor,” in James M., CAMPBELL, Joseph R., SAHIB and David P., STANG (eds.) Law and Order Reconsidered. Washington: National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.Google Scholar
WEBER, Max (1968) “Ideal Types and Theory Construction,” in May, BRODBECK (ed.) Readings in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
WEBER, Max (1967) Max Weber on Law in Economy and Society (Max RHEINSTEIN, ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster.Google Scholar
WHITFORD, William L. (1968) “Law and the Consumer Transaction: A Case Study of the Automobile Warranty,” [1968] Wisconsin Law Review 1006.Google Scholar
WIMBERLEY, Howard (1973) “Legal Evolution: One Further Step,” 79 American Journal of Sociology 78.Google Scholar
WINCH, Robert F. (1968) “Some Observations on Extended Familism in the United States,” in Robert F., WINCH and Louis Wolf, GOODMAN (eds.) Selected Studies in Marriage and the Family (3rd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
WINCH, Robert F. and Rae Lesser, BLUMBERG (1968) “Societal Complexity and Familial Organization,” in Robert F., WINCH and Louis Wolf, GOODMAN (eds.) Selected Studies in Marriage and the Family (3rd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
WIRTH, Louis (1938) “Urbanism as a Way of Life,” 44 American Journal of Sociology 1.Google Scholar
WISER, William H. and Wiser, Charlotte V. (1969) Behind Mud Walls. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
WORDSWORTH, William (1933) The Prelude or Growth of a Poet's Mind 1805. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
YAFFE, James (1972) So Sue Me! The Story of a Community Court. New York: Saturday Review Press.Google Scholar
YALE LAW JOURNAL (1970) “Legal Ethics and Professionalism,” 79 Yale Law Journal 1179.Google Scholar
YNVESSON, Barbara B. (1970) Decision-Making and Dispute Settlement in a Swedish Fishing Village: An Ethnography of Law. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
YOUNG, Michael and Peter, WILLMOTT (1957) Family and Kinship in East London. Glencoe: The Free Press.Google Scholar