Nichts zu klagen? Der Rückgang der Klageeingangszahlen in der Justiz

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Abstract After decades of heavy and increasing workloads for German courts, recent years have seen a reversal in this trend. The number of cases brought in all five jurisdictions has begun to fall, including the social courts, which initially experienced a marked rise in activity after 2005. What might explain this? Are there now fewer legal problems, or have the courts been supplanted as the means to resolve them? Are consumer complaints now resolved internally by firms and service providers? Will the evaluation of service quality move away from juridical categories to points-based systems and reviews in a digitalised form of social control? Is the recent trend ascribable to the improved economic and employment situation? Is the German justice system not working effectively? Has there been a fundamental shift in legal awareness? Or does the trend reflect an increase in the provision of alternative means for settling disputes? And, finally, have there been changes in the scope offered by substantive law? Even though, as yet, no definitive explanation is on offer, individual observations might provide a path to a fuller understanding. The contributions to a symposium held at the University of Halle in December 2015 present an interesting range of both observations and evaluations drawing on experience in courts, extra-judicial settlement bodies and from empirical legal research.