Responsibilities of Judges and Advocates in Civil and Common Law: Some Lingering Misconceptions Concerning Civil Lawsuits

Abstract

In a period in which an event as interesting and important as the formulationof Principles and Rules of Transnational Civil Procedure by theAmerican Law Institute and the International Institute for the Unificationof Private Law (UNIDROIT) is sternly advancing to accommodate basicprocedural concepts for both the civil and common law systems, a centralproblem faced in such conciliation seems to be that of clarifying the actualroles and responsibilities of judges and lawyers in the conduct of a civildispute. To do so will essentially mean scrutinizing the value and validityof settled conceptions of the inherent features of civil and common lawsystems, including the notion that these systems are basically opposite eachother. In other words, we will attempt to evaluate the correctness and reliability of this assertion, as well as to the unavoidable opposition itincurs