Revista da EMERJ - V. 21 - N. 2 - Maio/Agosto - 2019

33  R. EMERJ, Rio de Janeiro, v. 21, n. 2, p. 11-39, Maio-Agosto, 2019  Against this background one can scrutinise the two competing narratives in western countries concerning the civil justice: that there is not enough access to justice and that there is too much litigation. 91 However, it would not be fair to say that there is “too much” litigation in Italy (and possibly in any other jurisdiction) just as it would not be fair to say that there are too many sick people or too many people who want to make use of public transport. Rather, there are only governments which are unable to place courts, hospitals, and public transport companies in a condition to perform their duties and to cope with their caseloads, patients and passengers. To eliminate the imbalances between the supply of and demand for public services, governments can both increase supply, if there are resources to do so, and they can from a longterm perspective adopt measures in order to mitigate the human, cultural, social and economic conditions that increase litigation before the courts, illness and so on. This is for the politics to decide. Indeed: “The inability of the politics to remedy the intolerable inefficiency of the justice system has been one of the most discouraging aspects of Italy’s recent history”. 92 The huge workload of courts is primarily due to the fact that for decades the ratio of the number of judges to the number of civil cases to be decided has been unfavourable. There are too few judges in relation to the disputes to be resolved. The number of career judges per 100,000 inhabitants in Italy is lower than that of the most European countries (Italy 10.6; Germany 24; France, 10.7; Spain 11.2; Austria 18.3; Greece 23.3). 93 The ratio of honorary judges to 100,000 in habitants is even more unfavourable (Italy 5.5; Germany 122.3; France 38.0; Spain, 16.7; Austria N/A, Greece N/A). Low number of judges and relative high litigation rate, half that of comparators, creates the huge workload of courts. The indifference and the inability of politicians to tackle this problem in a timely manner has contributed to the increase of the backlog of cases pending before the courts. As of 2013, the number of pending cases 91 Cf. H. Genn , Judging Civil Justice, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010, p. 78. 92 Cf. P. Ginsborg , L’Italia del tempo presente. Famiglia società civile stato: 1980 – 1996, Torino, Einaudi, 1998, p. 435 ff., p. 562 f.; S. Chiarloni , Civil Justice and its Paradoxes: An Italian Perspective, p. 401 ff. 93 CEPEJ , Report on European Judicial Systems, p. 155, table 7.1.