On the home court advantage. Participation of locals and non-residents in a village law court in sixteenth-century Holland

Abstract

ABSTRACTRural law courts are sometimes believed to have contributed to juridical fragmentation, which led to coordination failures and, hence, to high transaction costs. We present a case study of the village law court of Mijnsheerenland, and pay particular attention to the question of whether non-residents expected villagers to have a ‘home court’ advantage. Our analysis of default risk premiums demanded by participants in various exchanges does not indicate this was the case. We argue that this was caused by one of the peculiarities of the juridical system of Holland, which was fragmented but nevertheless uniform because of the dominance of public courts under central control of the ruler.