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Connecting Litigation Levels and Legal Mobilization: Explaining Interstate Variation in Employment Civil Rights Litigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Charles R. Epp
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Abstract

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Social science research on civil litigation has concentrated either on explaining variations in aggregate litigation levels or on explaining individual-level mobilization of the law. This article attempts to connect the two approaches by analyzing variations in state-level employment civil rights litigation within a framework based on individual-legal decisionmaking. Because the structure of our court system forces individuals to consider the costs and benefits of pursuing litigation, the model developed here incorporates factors that would affect individuals' cost/benefit decisionmaking with regard to civil rights litigation. The multivariate regression model based on this framework explains, with increasing strength, much of the state-level variation in civil rights litigation levels for the years 1970, 1975, and 1980. Although the framework has certain limitations, it may serve to enhance our understanding of aggregate litigation levels.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , 1990 , pp. 145 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

This article is based on a presentation at the Southwestern Political Science Association annual meeting, March 29-April 1, 1989, Little Rock, Arkansas. I would like to thank C. K. Rowland and Paul Edward Johnson for helpful comments on the development of this research, and Herbert Kritzer and Joel Grossman for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

References

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Cases Cited

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Statute Cited

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