Social capital and procedural formalism

Differences in the extent of formalism of civil proceedings between common and civil law countries have expanded between 1950 and 2000. We study the role of social capital in this divergence using data on up to 35 countries. We find that higher-trust societies, and those that are less tolerant of opportunistic behaviours, were more likely to reduce the degree of procedural formalism over time, thus making litigation a more efficient means of seeking administration of justice. This result suggests that lowering of formalism may reflect a cultural bias for less formal dispute resolution among parties in high social capital societies.