Overall, this comment argues that trial courts may not be separated from their social context and that to study them is to simultaneously study issues relevant to many law-and-society subfields. It asserts that the most important contribution of longitudinal research on trial courts is its systematic attention to social change. Some of the contributions noted in this area are the development of small-scale, multicausal models; the merging of "court-centered" and "dispute-centered" research; and the incorporation of a temporal perspective into theory. Since critics of longitudinal studies have seen the need for greater precision of thought about the processes of litigation and change, this comment also offers suggestions for the development of theory in longitudinal research. Theory that appears to be promising for longitudinal studies of trial courts is summarized, followed by a discussion of the limits imposed by research methodology in longitudinal research on trial courts. The comment concludes with a discussion of the importance of developing theory for such longitudinal studies that takes into account how the State uses its political power to manage dispute resolution. 13 footnotes.