Justice and power in civil law negotiations

The relationship between power and justice in civil law negotiations is discussed. It is argued that the concept of power is essential to understand justice behavior in civil law negotiations. Distributive justice appears to be hardly relevant in civil law disputes and should be replaced by retributive justice to understand the behavior of the parties. The analysis leads to the observation that justice is more likely to be relevant for the powerless party in civil law disputes than for the power-holder. I conclude that both the relative power and justice behavior cannot be studied without taking into account the perception by individuals of both the relevant norms and the salient characteristics of the interaction.