Whither repeat players

This paper tests the party capability theory of Galanter (1974) using the universe of legal entities and their 9.3 million commercial disputes in Russia in 2012–2019. We find that repeat players (RP) do exist but only 60%, 30%, 23% of federal, regional, municipal agencies engaged in litigation are RP, respectively. Repetitiveness is negatively associated with litigation success in general. We explain this by selection into litigation. Entities engaged in unfair business practices are repeatedly selected into disputes as respondents becoming repeat players in spite of themselves. We argue that repetitiveness should be decoupled from party capability and urge for conceptual revision of the notion of a RP in court.