Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-lrf7s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-26T19:23:16.009Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Going to Court: Strategies of Dispute Management in an American Urban Neighborhood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Sally Engle Merry
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An analysis of the strategies of disputing pursued by the residents of a polyethnic American urban neighborhood reveals that they frequently resort to courts to manage interpersonal and crime-related disputes. Because the legal machinery available to them rarely resolves these disputes, however, the court functions as a sanction rather than a dispute settlement forum. In the absence of effective alternative informal or formal modes of resolving disputes, disputants resort to violence, avoidance, and endurance, a pattern of tolerating ongoing conflict.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , Summer 1979 , pp. 891 - 925
Copyright
Copyright © 1979 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.)

Footnotes

*

This paper is based on participant observation in an inner-city housing project from March, 1975, to September, 1976. I am grateful to the Center for Studies of Metropolitan Problems of the National Institute of Mental Health for a predoctoral dissertation grant #1 F31 MH 05088-01 during this period. David Jacobson provided valuable guidance and insight during the entire project. I also benefited from the comments of Donald Black, Marvin Davis, Laura Walters, Kristin Mann, and Susan Silbey on earlier drafts of this paper. Finally, I appreciate the friendship of the residents of Dover Square and their tolerance for my endless questions.

References

ABEL, Richard L. (1973) “A Comparative Theory of Dispute Institutions in Society,” 8 Law and Society Review 217.Google Scholar
AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION (1978) Report on the National Conference on Minor Disputes Resolution. Prepared by Frank E. A. Sander. ABA Press.Google Scholar
BARTH, Fredrick (1966) Models of Social Organization. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Occasional Papers, No. 23.Google Scholar
BELL, Griffin B. (1978) “The Pound Conference Follow-Up: A Response from the United States Department of Justice,” 76 Federal Rules Decisions 320.Google Scholar
BLACK, Donald J. (1970) “Production of Crime Rates,” 35 American Sociological Review 733.Google Scholar
BLACK, Donald J. (1971) “The Social Organization of Arrest,” 23 Stanford Law Review 1087.Google Scholar
BLACK, Donald J. (1973) “The Boundaries of Legal Sociology,” in Black, D. and Mileski, M. (eds.), The Social Organization of Law. New York: Seminar Press.Google Scholar
BLACK, Donald J. (1976) The Behavior of Law. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
BUCKLE, Suzann R. Thomas, and Leonard G., BUCKLE (1977) Bargaining for Justice: Case Disposition and Reform in the Criminal Courts. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
CARDARELLI, A. (n.d.) “Crime in 81 Boston Neighborhoods,” mimeo.Google Scholar
COLLIER, Jane (1973) Law and Social Change in Zinacantan. Stanford: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
COLSON, Elizabeth (1974) Tradition and Contract: The Problem of Order. Chicago: Aldine.Google 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 J., LOWY (1975) “Everyday Disputes and Mediation in the United States: A Reply to Professor Felstiner,” 9 Law and Society Review 675.Google Scholar
DOO, Leigh-Wai (1973) “Dispute Settlement in Chinese-American Communities,” 21 American Journal of Comparative Law 627.Google Scholar
ERICKSON, William H. (1978) “The Pound Conference Recommendations: A Blueprint for the Justice System in the Twenty-First Century,” 76 Federal Rules Decisions 277.Google Scholar
FELSTINER, William (1974) “Influences of Social Organization on Dispute Processing,” 9 Law and Society Review 63.Google Scholar
FELSTINER, William (1975) “Avoidance as Dispute Processing: An Elaboration,” 9 Law and Society Review 695.Google Scholar
FISHER, E. (1975) “Community Courts: An Alternative to Conventional Criminal Adjudication,” 24 American University Law Review 1253.Google Scholar
FULLER, Lon (1971) “Mediation—Its Forms and Functions,” 44 Southern California Law Review 305.Google Scholar
GALANTER, Marc (1974) “Why the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change,” 9 Law and Society Review 95.Google Scholar
GANS, Herbert (1962) The Urban Villagers: Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
GIBBS, James L. (1963) “The Kpelle Moot,” 33 Africa 1.Google Scholar
GLUCKMAN, Max (1963) “Gossip and Scandal,” 3 Current Anthropology 307.Google Scholar
GULLIVER, P.H. (1969) “Introduction” and “Dispute Settlement Without Courts: The Ndendeuli of Southern Tanzania,” in Nader, L. (ed.), Law in Culture and Society. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
HUNT, Eva and Robert, HUNT (1969) “The Role of Courts in Rural Mexico,” in Bock, P. (ed.), Peasants in the Modern World. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
JACOBS, Jane (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
JACOBSON, David (1971) “Mobility, Continuity, and Urban Social Organisation,” 6 Man 630.Google Scholar
JONES, Schuyler (1974) Men of Influence in Nuristan: A Study of Social Control and Dispute Settlement in Waigal Valley, Afghanistan. London: Seminar Press.Google Scholar
LEE, Rose Hum (1960) The Chinese in the United States of America. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
LOWY, Michael J. (1973) “Modernizing the American Legal System: An Example of the Peaceful Use of Anthropology,” 32 Human Organization 205.Google Scholar
LOWY, Michael J. (1974) “MeKo Court” in Foster, G.M. and Kemper, R.V. (eds.), Anthropologists in Cities. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
LOWY, Michael J. (1978) “A Good Name is Worth More than Money: Strategies of Court Use in Urban Ghana,” in Nader, L. and Todd, H.F. Jr. (eds.), The Disputing Process—Law in Ten Societies. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
McGILLIS, Daniel and Joan, MULLEN (1977) Neighborhood Justice Centers: An Analysis of Potential Models. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
MERRY, Sally Engle (1979) “Racial Integration in an Urban Neighborhood: The Social Organization of Strangers,” Human Organization (forthcoming).Google Scholar
MERRY, Sally Engle (1980) “The Articulation of Legal Spheres,” in Wright, Marcia, Mann, Kristin, and Hay, Jean (eds.), African Women and the Law. Boston: Boston University Press (forthcoming).Google Scholar
MILESKI, Maureen (1971) “Courtroom Encounters: An Observation Study of a Lower Criminal Court,” 5 Law and Society Review 473.Google Scholar
MOORE, Sally Falk (1973) “Law and Social Change: The Semi-Autonomous Social Field as an Appropriate Subject of Study,” 7 Law and Society Review 719.Google Scholar
MOORE, Sally Falk (1978) Law As Process: An Anthropological Approach. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
NADER, Laura (1965) “Choices in Legal Procedure: Shia Moslem and Mexican Zapotec,” 67 American Anthropologist 394.Google Scholar
NADER, Laura (1969) “Styles of Court Procedure: To Make the Balance,” in Nader, L. (ed.), Law in Culture and Society. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
NADER, Laura, and Duane, METZGER (1963) “Conflict Resolution in Two Mexican Communities,” 65 American Anthropologist 584.Google Scholar
NADER, Laura, and Harry F., TODD Jr. (eds.) (1978) The Disputing Process-Law in Ten Societies. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
REDFIELD, Robert (1967) “Primitive Law” in Bohannan, P. (ed.), Law and Warfare. Garden City, N.Y.: Natural History Press.Google Scholar
SANDER, Frank (1976) “Varieties of Dispute Processing,” 70 Federal Rules Decisions 111.Google Scholar
SCHWARTZ, Richard (1954) “Social Factors in the Development of Legal Control: A Case Study of Two Israeli Settlements,” 63 Yale Law Journal 471.Google Scholar
SCHWARTZ, Richard (1976) “Law in the Kibbutz: A Response to Professor Shapiro,” 10 Law and Society Review 439.Google Scholar
SILBEY, Susan S. (1979) “The Availability of Legal Devices,” Paper presented at the Eastern Sociological Society, New York City.Google Scholar
SIMMEL, Georg (1950) The Sociology of Georg Simmel. Translated and edited by Wolff, Kurt H.. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
SPENCE, Jack (1978) “Institutionalizing Neighborhood Courts: Two Chilean Experiences,” 13 Law and Society Review 139.Google Scholar
STARR, June (1978) “Turkish Village Disputing Behavior,” in Nader, L. and Todd, H.F. Jr. (eds.), The Disputing Process—Law in Ten Societies. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
STARR, June and Jonathan, POOL (1974) “The Impact of a Legal Revolution in Rural Turkey,” 8 Law and Society Review 533.Google Scholar
STARR, June and Barbara, YNGVESSON (1975) “Scarcity and Disputing: Zeroing-in on Compromise Decisions,” 2 American Ethnologist 553.Google Scholar
SYKES, Gresham (1969) “Cases, Courts, and Congestion,” in Nader, L. (ed.), Law in Culture and Society. Chicago: Aldine.Google Scholar
TODD, Harry F. Jr. (1978) “Litigious Marginals: Character and Disputing in a Bavarian Village,” in Nader, L. and Todd, H.F. Jr. (eds.), The Disputing Process—Law in Ten Societies. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (1975) Uniform Crime Reports for the United States, 1975. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
YNGVESSON, Barbara (1976) “Responses to Grievance Behavior: Extended Cases in a Fishing Community,” 3 American Ethnologist 353.Google Scholar
YNGVESSON, Barbara (1978) “The Atlantic Fishermen,” in Nader, L. and Todd, H.F. Jr. (eds.), The Disputing Process—Law in Ten Societies. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar