Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-m42fx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-23T05:48:41.491Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Avoidance as Dispute Processing: An Elaboration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

William L. F. Felstiner
William L. F. Felstiner*
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

I have suggested (1974) that in societies such as the United States, where non-governmental institutionalized mediation and adjudication of interpersonal disputes are infrequent, some of the slack may be absorbed by avoidance. I implied that avoidance would generally have lower costs in the United States than in societies where such mediation and adjudication are widely available. Danzig and Lowy (1975: 676-682) argue that I have underestimated the costs of avoidance in the United States. They may be right. In any event, avoidance can be analyzed more precisely than it was in my original paper (see 1974: 70, 76, 79-80, 83-84). This response will try to provide such an analysis, including a more complete breakdown of avoidance costs. It will suggest why I appraise avoidance costs differently than do Danzig and Lowy. It will also re-evaluate some of the variance in avoidance costs between different societies. Finally, it will discuss avoidance and Danzig and Lowy's proposed neighborhood mediation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 9 , Issue 4 , Summer 1975 , pp. 695 - 706
Copyright
Copyright © 1975 The Law and Society Association.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

AUBERT, Vilhelm (1963) “Competition and Dissensus: Two Types of Conflict and of Conflict Resolution,” 7 Journal of Conflict Resolution 26.Google Scholar
BLACK, Donald J. (1971) “The Social Organization of Arrest,” 23 Stanford Law Review 1087.Google Scholar
COHEN, Jerome Alan (1967) “Chinese Mediation on the Eve of Modernization,” 2 Journal of Asian and African Studies 54.Google Scholar
COLLIER, Jane Fishburne (1973) Law and Social Change in Zinacantan. Stanford: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DANZIG, Richard (1973) “Toward the Creation of a Complementary Decentralized System of Criminal Justice,” 26 Stanford Law Review 1.Google Scholar
DANZIG, Richard and Michael, LOWY (1975) “Everyday Disputes and Me diation in the United States: A Reply to Professor Felstiner,” 9 Law & Society Review 000.Google Scholar
DECHARMS, Richard and Gerald H., MOELLER (1962) “Values Expressed in American Children's Readers: 1800-1950,” 64 Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology 136.Google Scholar
ELKIN, Meyer (1974) “Conciliation in Courts: The Reintegration of Disintegrating Families,” in Nichols, William C. Jr. (ed.) Marriage and Family Therapy. Minneapolis: National Council on Family Relations.Google Scholar
EMMETT, Isabel (1964) A North Wales Village. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
FELSTINER, William L.F. (1974) “Influences of Social Organization on Dispute Processing,” 9 Law & Society Review 63.Google Scholar
HOEBEL, E. Adamson (1954) The Law of Primitive Man. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KIMBER, J.A. Morris (1967) “Psychologists and Marriage Counselors in the United States,” 22 American Psychologist 862.Google Scholar
MACAULAY, Stewart (1963) “Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study,” 28 American Sociological Review 55.Google Scholar
McGINN, Noel F., Ernest, HARBURG and Gerald P., GINSBURG (1965) “Responses to Interpersonal Conflict by Middle Class Males in Guadalajara and Michigan,” 67 American Anthropologist 584.Google Scholar
MILLER, Walter B. (1955) “Two Concepts of Authority,” 57 American Anthropologist 271.Google Scholar
POSNER, Richard A. (1972) Economic Analysis of Law. Boston: Little Brown.Google Scholar
REDLICH, Frederick C. and Daniel X., FREEDMAN (1966) The Theory and Practice of Psychiatry. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
SCHWARTZ, Richard D. (1954) “Social Factors in the Development of Legal Control: A Case Study of Two Israeli Communities,” 63 Yale Law Journal 471.Google Scholar
SKINNER, Elliott P. (1961) “Intergenerational Conflict among the Mossi: Father and Son,” 5 Journal of Conflict Resolution 55.Google Scholar
SPINDLER, George D. (1963) “The Transmission of American Culture,” in Spindler, George D. (ed.) Education and Culture—Anthropological Approaches. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
SWARTZ, Marc J. (1966) “Bases for Political Compliance in Bena Villages,” in Swartz, Marc J., Turner, V.W. and Tuden, A. (eds.) Political Anthropology. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
THIBAUT, John W. and Harold H., KELLEY (1959) The Social Psychology of Groups. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
WALTON, Richard E. (1969) Interpersonal Peacemaking: Confrontations and Third Party Consultation. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
YNGVESSON, Barbara B. (1970) Decision-Making and Dispute Settlement in a Swedish Fishing Village: An Ethnography of Law. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar