Description
Book SynopsisThis book analyzes how people settle disputes in and outside of Polish courts. The preference for courts against informal settlements increased with the consolidation of the democratic legal state. Still, the compromise settlement remains the cultural ideal. The authors evaluate these circumstances in their extensive study of private disputes in the courts and of different types of individual settlements. They observed that the role of power behind these choices proved to be significant as people in better social positions are more inclined to use the courts and in worse social positions more inclined to deal informally with opponents in power. The ethnic factor surveyed in other former Communist countries is also related to the relative power of the different ethnic groups. The book investigates how institutional, social and cultural factors interact in shaping the dispute settlement patterns.
Table of ContentsTheory of dispute settlement – Patterns of dispute and dispute settlement in courts – Civil claims – Private accusation against abuse of moral and bodily integrity – Hate speech in popular legal culture – Effects of transformation – All-Polish representative public opinion survey 2014 – Ethnic dimension in Latvia, Romania and Bulgaria
