Variation in Use of Courts by Legal Status and Jurisdiction

法院经常再现现有的权力差别;很难在法庭上从更强大的群体提出法律的要求。 这一研究结果已在多个地点和多个法律领域得到解决。 它没有经过历史的检验，我们也没有足够的了解，当弱势群体的成员在地方法院对那些可能只是稍微更有礼貌，或者可能在法律的地位上有所不同的人提起诉讼时，这意味着什么。 然而，在多个司法管辖区，少数群体的成员利用法院提出索赔和维护利益。 最后，在对各类法律的制度进行明确比较时，对这一框架的探讨仍然不足。这个项目将测试在法院提出索赔的法律的地位和管辖权的重要性，比较英美法系和大陆法系的制度。大陆法系的司法管辖区组织法律的索赔不同于普通法系。 向法院提起诉讼的人因其法律的地位而异。 这一变化将使项目能够评估法律的地位在提出法律的要求时的重要性，包括过程和结果。 诉讼表明，法律的体系并不仅仅是精英阶层的专利。 将从属群体的成员重新想象为精明的诉讼人，将使我们对权力的解释复杂化，并将成为理解其他从属群体的法律的行为的模型。 该项目将生成一个数据集，记录四个县所有涉及黑人诉讼当事人的现有下级法院案件（约2 000起案件），保存脆弱的记录，并使其更广泛地提供。 存放在法院地下室和储藏室的未公布的地方法院记录很少有人查阅，而且迅速恶化。 这些记录是了解法律的制度与分层社会中在法律上正式边缘化的人民之间关系的重要资源。 该项目还将有助于培养一名社会科学学生。 此外，该项目还将改进本科生关于法律的分层和法院使用的教学。

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 Unpublished local court records stored in courthouse basements and storage sheds are rarely accessed and rapidly deteriorating.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.