Dispute Settlement Patterns in Public Opinion - Four Local Studies of Transformation
Dispute Settlement Patterns in Public Opinion - Four Local Studies of Transformation

Summary/Abstract: By indicating that the concepts and ideals of dispute settlement are part of anethos, the authors tackle the issue of the specificity of conciliatory culture in thepopular legal consciousness in Poland. The results of surveys conducted in threesmall towns and in a metropolitan district of Warsaw on dispute experience andpreferred patterns of dispute settlement are subjected to statistical analysis. A longitudinal study in 4 localities during the period of Poland as a democratic legalstate has not refuted the hypothesis of different local legal cultures, but pointed toan increase in similarity. At this stage of research we must reject the working hypothesis of there being a peculiar culture of compromise and informality. Ourdata also point to an absence of any clear difference between the four localitiesunder investigation. It thus seems that under contemporary conditions the uniform national institutional court structure interacts with the uniform national legal culture. Taking attitude towards courts into account shows that there was muchmore diversity 40 years ago than during the transformation.

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