Among the major decisions any legal system must make is deciding whether to establish general courts with broad jurisdiction, or specialized courts with limited jurisdiction. Under one influential argument—advanced by both judges and legal theorists—general courts foster coherence within the legal system. This Article identifies a distinct effect of establishing general courts: the “complementarity effect.” In the case of complementarity, general courts strategically apply different principles in different fields, such that litigants losing in one sphere (e.g., public law) are compensated in another (e.g., private law). We support this conjecture by analyzing three case studies.

中文翻译：

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普通法院、专门法院及其互补效应

任何法律体系必须做出的重大决定之一是决定是建立具有广泛管辖权的普通法院，还是建立具有有限管辖权的专门法院。根据法官和法律理论家共同提出的一项有影响力的论点，普通法院促进了法律体系内的一致性。该条指出了设立普通法院的一个独特效果：“互补效应”。在互补性的情况下，普通法院在不同领域战略性地适用不同的原则，使得当事人在一个领域（例如公法）的损失在另一领域（例如私法）得到补偿。我们通过分析三个案例研究来支持这个猜想。