Variation in Use of Courts by Legal Status and Jurisdiction

West Virginia University Research Corporation, Morgantown WV

Investigators

Abstract

Courts often reproduce existant power differentials; it is difficult to make legal claims in court from more powerful groups. This research finding has been addressed in multiple venues and across multiple areas of law. It has not been tested historically, nor do we know enough about what that means when members of disadvantaged groups take court cases in local courts against people who may only be marginally more advantaged, or may differ in legal status. Yet in multiple jurisdictions, members of minority groups have used the courts to make claims and vindicate interests. Finally, the framework remains underexplored in explicit comparisons across types of legal regimes. This project will test the significance of both legal status and jurisdiction in making claims in the courts, comparing across common-law and civil-law regimes. Civil law jurisdictions organize legal claims making differently from common law systems. People who took cases to court varied by legal status. That variation will allow the project to evaluate the significance of legal status in making legal claims, both in process and outcomes. Litigation indicates that the legal system was not solely the province of the elite. Reimagining members of subordinated groups as shrewd litigators will complicate our interpretation of power and will serve as a model for understanding the legal action of other subordinated groups. This project will generate a dataset of all extant lower court cases involving black litigants in four counties (about 2,000 cases), preserving records that are fragile and making them more broadly available. Unpublished local court records stored in courthouse basements and storage sheds are rarely accessed and rapidly deteriorating. These records represent an important resource for understanding the relationship between legal systems and formally legally marginalized peoples in stratified societies. The project will also contribute to the training of a student in the social sciences. In addition the project will allow improved teaching of undergraduates concerning legal stratification and use of the courts.