Реферат: The Paradox Of Community Essay Research Paper

to settlement here,? says a local attorney, ?because they are attempting to be

fair as opposed to making a fast buck? (38). Of the small handful of personal

injury cases that make it all the way to Sander County Court, most have a common

trait: The participants are divided by either a geographic or cultural stretch

that cannot be spanned by any means bereft of litigation (40). If retort

embracing the assertion of rights transpires at all, it is ordinarily proposed

by ?outsiders,? those who otherwise lack an acknowledged place in the status

power structure of Sander County (44). The Court is able to overcome distances

between parties to personal injury cases and to advance social intercourse.

However, it accomplishes this by the persuasion of pressure, and its results

have a tendency to provoke conflict rather than amend it (46). The progressive

break down of the familiar social values and the advent of a ?plurality of

cultures? in Sander County creates a ?confusion of norms? and of tools for

resolving disputes. The outsiders represent and materialize a social and

cultural diversity that Sander County has never known. Their very presence is a

threat to the earlier system of standards produced by intimate alliances inside

the community (47).

In Sander County, there is a strong distinction between the

inappropriate use of law for personal ends and the appropriate litigation for

the preservation of public harmony (143). This ambivalence of law in practice

is apparent in Sander County’s approval of claims based on breeches of contract.

Long-time Sander County residents regard their society as one that is

historically grounded in mutual reliance among fellow inhabitants. In a region

that is still chiefly agricultural but where industrialization is swiftly

changing the type of dependencies representative of yesterday’s farming

communities (143), trust in a person’s word, ?including promises to pay for

goods and services,? is fundamental to the sustenance of this way of life. The

law is seen as encoding these values and many creditors take their grievances to

Sander County Court. Of these cases, many of the plaintiffs litigate solely to