Three of the articles report on longitudinal research, and the other three offer comments on the relationship between broad social and economic change and the courts. The research articles offer contrasting approaches to the problems of inferring relationships between social and economic change and the activity of courts. One research article reports on fluctuations in the time series for the work of the municipal courts in Bremen, Germany, over five centuries (1549-1984). Another research article reports on socioeconomic development and the evolution of litigation rates of civil courts in Belgium from 1835 to 1980, and the third article reports on an examination of caseload dynamics and the nature of change in the civil proceedings of trial courts in four Illinois counties. In commenting on the implications of the six articles, this introduction suggests that future research must focus in greater detail on the connections between litigation and changes in power, interests, and meanings of people and organizations that create conflict and influence its manifestations and outcomes and between litigation and changes in such State organizations as courts and legislatures.