COURT SYSTEMS AND LAWJudges Lawyers Civil Cases
Number Number Number
per per per
Country Date Million Date Million Date Million
Australia 1977 41.6 1975 911.6 1975 62.06
Belgium 1975 105.7 1972 389.7 1969 28.31
Canada 1970 59.3 1972 890.1 1981-2 46.58
Denmark 1970 41.04
England/Wales 1973 50.9 1973 606.4 1973 41.1
France 1973 84.0 1973 206.4 1975 30.67
Italy 1973 100.8 1973 792.6 1973 9.66
Japan 1974 22.7 1973 91.2 1978 11.68
Netherlands 1975 39.8 1972 170.8 1970 8.25
New Zealand 1976 26.8 1975 1081.3 1978 53.32
Norway 1977 60.8 1977 450.0 1976 20.32
Spain 1970 31.0 1972 893.4 1970 3.45
Sweden 1973 99.6 1973 192.4 1973 35.0
United States 1980 94.9 1980 2348.7 1975 44.0
W. Germany 1973 213.4 1973 417.2 1977 23.35Judges, Lawyers, and Civil Litigation in Selected CountriesTable 1
whether the United States, in particular, is ‘‘over-
lawyered.’’ Some even see this question as helping
account for the so-called litigiousness of American
law. Whatever the numbers, an increasing number
of civil cases are settled either during or after trial.
Lawyers play their role in filing cases, but most of
their work is done outside the court, which, of
course, means lots of work for lawyers. Further,
although cases may never reach court, as Mnookin
and Kornhauser (1979) put it, much negotiation
takes place in the ‘‘shadow of law.’’ That is, law-
yers, well or poorly acquainted with actual court
cases, call attention to what is ‘‘likely’’ to happen if
they go to court, not to speak of the delay and
expense. So law, or at least imagined law, plays a
dominant role even when never specifically called
into play (Ewick and Silbey 1998).
A useful table (table 1), if read with caution, is
provided after careful research by Galanter
(1983, p. 53).
Although we do not provide the sources, the
results differ in dependability and the care with
which they have been calculated. Still, the con-
trasts, however crude, are revealing. As to civil
cases, the United States is seen to stand toward the
middle, exceeded by Australia, New Zealand, and
Canada, with many others being much lower. The
United States is at the lower end in judges, being
exceeded by W. Germany, Belgium, Italy, and
Sweden. But when we come to lawyers, the United
States far exceeds other countries, though Austral-
ia, New Zealand, Canada, and Spain are also richly
supplied. As we note later in the discussion of civil
law countries, many others not called ‘‘lawyers’’ do
what the United States would call ‘‘law.’’ Such
persons include notaries, government officials of
many kinds, law clerks in private firms, and, in
Japan, the very high proportion of those who take
the exam but are not allowed to practice (they do
just about everything lawyers in the United States
do except represent clients in court).In making such international or intercultural
comparisons, one should bear in mind differences
in conceptions of what is worth disputing over and
indeed what a dispute is in the first place. The
studies by Felstiner, Abel, and Sarat (1980–81)
suggest that a great many, perhaps most, injurious
experiences are never perceived as such, but rath-
er thought of as simply part of the risks of living.
Some proportion of these are seen as violations of
some right, but even many of those are simply
‘‘lumped,’’ that is, borne with equanimity or toler-
ated as not worth pursuing because of time or
costs. A small proportion are, however, charged to
a specific causal agent, and if a person or collectivi-
ty, then become what are called ‘‘grievances.’’
Some small proportion of those in turn, if voiced,
turn into claims that, if rejected, become ‘‘dis-
putes.’’ In turn, most (90 percent approximately)