A Longitudinal Study of the Judicial Role in Family and Commercial Disputes

摘要

The project broadens our knowledge of state trial courts. It investigates the civil caseload of five state trial courts of general jurisdiction over an 80-year span. Approximately 6,000 cases were sampled. Roughly 200 cases were examined in each of six time periods, in five trial courts. The study tested two hypotheses; that commercial and family litigation has recently lost its adversariness; and that the kinds of cases brought for judicial resolution increasingly depart from those the courts typically have been best-suited to handle.