The competitiveness of the market for legal services and judicial efficiency

Journal title ECONOMIA PUBBLICA
Author/s Roberto Ippoliti
Publishing Year 2014 Issue 2014/2
Language Italian Pages 38 P. 53-90 File size 938 KB
DOI 10.3280/EP2014-002003
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The judicial efficiency is one of the main goals of any democratic state. An efficient judicial system is crucial both from the economic and the social point of view since it constitutes one of the pillars of modern societies. This study aims at estimating the efficiency of the Italian judicial system of First Instance and the determinants of inefficiency. Specifically, it tests the hypothesis that the number of professionals in the market for legal services (i.e. lawyers) can affect positively the supply of justice and therefore the performance of courts. In other words, author studies the relation between the number of lawyers and the score of efficiency of these courts, assuming that the market competitiveness is able to improve the judicial performance. The confirmation of the proposed hypothesis could give a further impulse to the reform process of the legal profession, which has been started in the sixteenth legislature.

Keywords: Efficienza giudiziaria, giustizia civile, mercato forense, avvocati, competitivita, servizi legali.

Jel codes: J44, C44

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Roberto Ippoliti, La competitività del mercato forense e l’efficienza giudiziaria in "ECONOMIA PUBBLICA " 2/2014, pp 53-90, DOI: 10.3280/EP2014-002003