NCJ Number
85580
Journal
Buffalo Law Review Volume: 29 Issue: 3 Dated: (1980) Pages: 487-530
Date Published
1980
Length
44 pages
Annotation
This essay presents the advantages and disadvantages of the adversary system and suggests that litigants be permitted to choose the type they believe is best suited to their particular needs.
Abstract
The adversary process has a number of indispensable components. These include a factfinder who is both neutral and passive, parties responsible for the development of the evidence, professional advocates who prepare and prosecute most lawsuits, rules which regulate the conduct of the participants, and appellate courts which oversee the integrity of the process. In the first part of this essay, these components and their interrelationships are considered. The second part of the discussion carries this consideration a step further and concludes that a process with the enumerated adversarial attributes is intrinsically and purposefully slow-moving. The third part of the discussion details a number of situations in which adversary procedure has been either abandoned or altered because it is believed to cause delay or functions inefficiently. The fourth section of the essay identifies a number of the values served by the adversary process and fashions a defense of the process in terms of those values. Central to this defense is the proposition that adversary methods are particularly well suited to the protection of individual rights. The concluding section indicates those circumstances where the use of adversary methods may not be appropriate. (Author summary modified)