This comprehensive Research Handbook surveys the landscape of civil justice through a global and interdisciplinary lens. World-leading experts provide insight on law's shortcomings, the gap between aspiration and achievement, and the unmet needs of those who have been failed by the legal system as well as a hopeful vision for attaining justice.

Contents Foreword x Introduction – the emergence of civil justice as a legal field 1 Anne Bloom, David M. Engel and Richard L. Jolly PART I VIEWS OF JUSTICE AS A LEGAL FIELD Introduction to Part I: Views of justice as a legal field 1 The politics of American civil justice in historical perspective 11 Anne Bloom and Michael McCann 2 The evolving political economy of access to justice: times and places 27 Bryant G. Garth 3 Empirical research on civil justice: a brief history 41 Herbert M. Kritzer 4 Access to civil justice in rural tribal and state courts 60 Michele Statz 5 Competing spheres of civil justice in South Africa 73 Roni Amit PART II CIVIL JUSTICE CLAIMING Introduction to Part II: Civil justice claiming 6 The Japanese disputing process from a comparative perspective 90 Masayuki Murayama 7 Dispute resolution as civil justice: the evolution of process pluralism 113 Carrie Menkel-Meadow 8 Apologies, remorse, and amends: civil justice implications 132 Jennifer K. Robbennolt 9 Ghost claims lumping in the civil justice system 149 David M. Engel 10 Pastoral drowning: injuries of the unseen 164 Løchlann Jain 11 Legal consciousness and access to justice 180 Kathryne M. Young 12 Civil legal needs 198 Rebecca L. Sandefur PART III PERSPECTIVES ON ACCESS TO CIVIL JUSTICE Introduction to Part III: Perspectives on access to justice 13 Legal capability and access to civil justice 212 Pascoe Pleasence and Nigel Balmer 14 Access to justice and social inequality: building a new agenda for social reform 231 Daniela Monteiro Gabbay and Maria Cecília de Araujo Asperti 15 Joining forces, pooling interests: the complicated consequences of collective civil action 243 Deborah R. Hensler 16 Scaling up smart: centering access to justice in the court technology revolution 267 Qudsiya Naqui 17 Access to courts and the vanishing trial continued 288 Sarah Staszak 18 The rule of law is fragile: the importance of legitimacy and access 304 Stephen Daniels and Joanne Martin PART IV CIVIL JUSTICE AND THE STATE Introduction to Part IV: Civil justice and the state 19 Bringing the state back in: dispute resolution and state-(re)making in the People’s Republic of China 326 Ke Li 20 Is ‘public interest lawyering’ intelligible across cultures? 349 Frank W. Munger 21 Civil juries and civil justice 368 Valerie P. Hans and Richard L. Jolly 22 Tort law and the role of courts in advancing disability awareness: a critical analysis 383 Sagit Mor 23 Chinese courts as embedded institutions 395 Kwai Hang Ng 24 Civil justice in mass tort litigation: Bhopal and beyond 409 Arpita Gupta 25 Transnational mass tort litigation: a proposal for an International Court of Civil Justice 426 Maya Steinitz 26 Civil justice in the European Union 444 Xandra Kramer and Adriani Dori Afterword: Pursuing civil justice: Back to what future? 461 David Nelken