Historians across Europe have identified an intriguing phenomenon in litigation patterns. In the long sixteenth century European civil law courts at various levels were characterized by a dramatic increase in the number of cases they heard—a so‐called ‘legal revolution’. However, during the seventeenth century the courts saw a marked decrease in the volume of litigation, a ‘great litigation decline’. This project will contribute to our understanding of this decline by way of an analysis of the shifts in the social-‐economic composition of the clientele and the nature of case matter of law courts of first instance. There are reasons to assume such structural changes. In the long sixteenth century social groups from the lower middling ranks of society especially, were responsible for the dramatic increase in lawsuits. Large sections of middling groups impoverished during the early modern period, possibly resulting in significantly fewer occasions for litigation. The project improves our understanding of changes in the business of law courts and changes in processes of inclusion and exclusion in early modern communities. The city of Bruges and the rural district called the Liberty of Bruges during the seventeenth and eighteenth century will be the case studies. The juridical and social‐economic configuration of these regions and their courts allows for a comparative research design that helps to test the assumed correlation between declining litigation and social‐economic change.