We are planning to have sessions on dispute resolu-tion and civil justice in comparative perspectives at the Berlin meeting for socio-legal studies in July 2007. We would like to organize sessions concerning (1) disputing behavior and out-of-court dispute resolution, (2) litigation behavior and the role of the court in dis-pute resolution and (3) public views and opinions of the courts (and the “legal consciousness”). We will welcome your paper on one of these topics.
Our international research collaboration was initially organized for the Berlin meeting and original mem-bers include Erhard Blankenburg (Germany), Albert Currie (Canada), Hazel Genn (UK), Herbert Kritzer (US), Masayuki Murayama (Japan), Bert Niemeijer (the Netherlands), Shozo Ota (Japan) and Pascoe Pleasance (UK). Our IRC is intended to continue after Berlin as an international research group in Rcsl and Lsa. If you are interested in joining us or present-ing a paper in one of our sessions, please contact one of the following persons:

Hazel Genn: h.genn@ucl.ac.uk
Herbert Kritzer: hkritzer@wisc.edu
Masayuki Murayama: muramasa@kisc.meiji.ac.jp
Bert Niemeijer: bert.niemeijer@hetnet.nl