The Manager-Judge and the Judge-Manager: Towards Managerial Jurisprudence in Civil Procedure

For a long time, the overriding principle of judicial systems has been exposing the truth in conflicts. This principle is perceived as a guiding principle both by the adversarial system of justice and by the inquisitorial judicial system, where every legal system seeks to expose the truth in a different way. This Article presents a different concept that should guide the courts when they discuss disputes: managerial jurisprudence. According to this principle, a judge is a manager and case law is case management. The emphasis in managerial jurisprudence is legal efficiency, based on the understanding that parties arriving at the court are less interested in deontological justice than they are in settling the conflict and finding a specific solution as quickly as possible. Therefore, the author suggests that the examination of the effectiveness of civil procedure rules should be done using standards of management rather than standards designed only to expose the truth. This will enable the streamlining of civil proceedings and create interface with other areas of law, where efficiency is already a dominant instrument for assessing legal provisions. In addition, the author will demonstrate how managerial jurisprudence constitutes a proper response for Alternative Dispute Resolution. In other words, managerial jurisprudence will be able to promote both efficiency and justice fairly, since justice must also be administered.