The Limits of Formal Legal Categories

“In many instances [individuals who find themselves parties in an adversarial court proceeding] can devise more satisfactory solutions to their disputes than can professionals constrained to apply general rules on the basis of limited knowledge of the dispute.

The variability of preferences and of situations, compared to the small number of things that can be taken into account by formal rules and the loss of meaning in transforming the dispute into professional categories suggest limits on the desirability of conforming outcomes to authoritative rules.”

-Marc Galanter’s “Justice in Many Rooms” (1981)