Thursday, July 2, 2009

Kritzer on Early Empirical Research on Civil Justice

Early Empirical Research on Civil Justice has just been posted by Herbert M. Kritzer, University of Minnesota Law School. Here's the abstract:
The modern empirical legal studies movement has well-known antecedents in the law and society and law and economics traditions of the latter half of the 20th century. Less well known is the body of empirical research on legal phenomena from the period prior to World War II. This paper is a short bibliographic essay surveying the pre-war English-language empirical legal research focused on issues related to civil justice. The essay is arranged around the themes of general studies of civil litigation, auto accident litigation and compensation, divorce, small claims, jurisdiction and procedure, and civil juries. Accompanying the essay is a bibliography of early research articles, books, and reports related to civil justice.