The Impact of Lawsuits Against Public Participation
{'Code': '04050200', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'SBE', 'LongName': 'Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'SES', 'LongName': 'Divn Of Social and Economic Sciences'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Lisa Martin', 'PO_EMAI': None, 'PO_PHON': None}
While there is a sizable and growing literature in the                     social sciences on litigation and the transformation of disputes,               it has largely focused on the pressing of claims between                        individuals or organizations.  In instances when research has                   focused on the government as an actor, typically the emphasis has               been on its reactive role as a defendant.  In contrast, little is               known about the role and impact of government when it decides to                pursue civil damage lawsuits against private parties.  This area                of litigation is particularly valuable for scientific study not                 only because it is an important piece of the landscape of                       disputing but also because subsequent litigation by parties may                 be affected by their understanding and perception of government's               decision to sue.                                                                     Drs. Canan and Pring examine the use of lawsuits by                        government in a particularly important sphere of activity at the                intersection of law and politics:  when civil damage lawsuits are               filed against citizens who have asserted their views on public                  policy issues.  These disputes are instances of transformation                  from the political to the legal arenas.  By focusing on the                     dynamics influencing their initiation, processing, and outcomes,                these investigators are able to assess the potential chilling                   effects of these lawsuits on future citizen participation (of                   these defendants and others).  Their work is guided by the                      hypothesis that such lawsuits are more than instances of simple                 dispute transformation insofar as they function to reprivatize                  conflicts made public by virtue of citizens' public grievance.                       Specifically, Drs. Canan and Pring undertake a two-phase                   project:  The first phase involves ten case studies using                       systematic open-ended interviews.  This phase explores within-                  party social characteristics, between-party social dynamics, and                extra-legal outcomes that occur as the dispute moves from private               to public attention and from political to judicial arenas.  The                 second phase, a comparative survey, seeks to measure                            quantitatively the dynamics of disputing and to test the chilling               effects of such suits on the local polity.  The sampling design                 calls for defendants from 100 lawsuits, 100 persons involved but                not named in those suits, and 100 persons engaged in comparable                 activities but with no knowledge of such litigation.  Rigorously                meshing qualitative and quantitative data, the work of Drs. Canan               and Pring should add to our scientific understanding of the uses                and consequences of legal action in an area which to date has                   only been sporadically and anecdotally addressed.
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[{'Code': '137200', 'Text': 'LSS-Law And Social Sciences'}, {'Code': '912000', 'Text': 'CROSS-DIRECTORATE PROGRAMS'}]
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