ABSTRACT

The demand for civil justice in Germany has shrunk over the last decades, although we can observe a high level of heterogeneity, with increasing and decreasing trends depending on specific case matters. The present work investigates this phenomenon, analyzing the aggregate demand for civil justice between 2008 and 2017 at the regional level, and focusing on the courts. We study the propensity of individuals to pursue justice according to the current economic, judicial and socio-cultural environments. We identify a statistically significant negative relation between economic development and the aggregate demand for civil justice, i.e., we cannot reject the hypothesis that the so-called ‘forgiving’ behavior might be predominant among the explored dynamics. However, considering the judicial environment, it emerges that judicial performance might discourage people from submitting cases to courts, lending strength to a different hypothesis, i.e., an increase in the use of alternative methods of dispute resolution on the private market of legal services. Finally, looking at socio-cultural dynamics, the authors observe statistically significant differences between the demand for justice in the West and the East of Germany.

摘要

在过去的几十年里，德国对民事司法的需求已经萎缩，尽管我们可以观察到高度的异质性，根据具体案件的情况，有增加和减少的趋势。目前的工作调查了这一现象，分析了 2008 年至 2017 年间地区层面对民事司法的总需求，并重点关注法院。我们根据当前的经济、司法和社会文化环境研究个人追求正义的倾向。我们发现经济发展与民事司法的总需求之间存在统计学上显着的负相关关系，即我们不能拒绝所谓的“宽恕”的假设。' 行为可能在探索的动态中占主导地位。然而，考虑到司法环境，司法表现可能会阻止人们向法院提交案件，从而为不同的假设提供支持，即在法律服务的私人市场上更多地使用替代的争议解决方法。最后，从社会文化动态来看，作者观察到德国西部和东部对正义的需求之间存在统计学上的显着差异。