Periodic Reporting for period 4 - EU-JUSTICE (Building EU civil justice: challenges of procedural innovations bridging access to justice)
Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2022-08-31
Access to justice and the right to a fair trial are at the heart of every judicial system in a civil society. Civil procedures in many countries are time-consuming, costly, and complex. The lack of efficiency in civil procedure has been the most pressing issue for a number of decades. The increasing procedural economy remains a primary challenge. Efforts have been made by both national legislators and the European legislator to speed up and simplify civil procedure and to reduce costs. All these reforms aim at facilitating access to justice, but at the same time they often aim at or are paired with cost-reduction measures for the government. Key issues in the quest to enhance access to civil justice are four fundamental trends in civil procedure: (1) the digitalisation of civil procedures; (2) the privatisation of civil justice; (3) increased self-representation; and (4) the specialisation of courts and procedures. This project seeks to provide a comprehensive appraisal of these four connected trends by comparing law and practice in five representative Member States, and with a view to the emerging EU civil justice system. The project’s overarching research question is: How do the contemporary trends of digitalisation, privatisation, self-representation, and specialisation of civil justice influence access to justice in the selected Member States, and what are the repercussions for the emerging EU civil justice system? The three main objectives of the project are to: (1) map and analyse the trends of digitalisation, privatisation, self-representation, and specialisation in civil procedure in the selected Member States; (2) scrutinise these against the background of access to justice (gains for procedural efficiency and threats to procedural justice) as a fundamental right and as the pillar of civil justice in the EU; and (3) build on the foundation of EU civil justice, securing effective equal and access to justice for EU citizens. The project is divided in five sub-projects. Trend 1 (digitalisation of civil procedures) is divided in two projects: sub-project 1a on digitisation conducted by postdoc researcher Erlis Themeli and sub-project 1b on ODR conducted by PhD researcher Emma van Gelder. Sub-project 2 on privatisation of civil procedure (ADR) was first conducted by postdoc researcher Alexandre Biard from September 2017 until 30 November 2019. He passed on the baton to postdoc researcher Betül Kas in January 2020. Postdoc researcher Jos Hoevenaars is conducting sub-project 3 on self-representation and PhD researcher Georgia Antonopoulou is conducting sub-project 4 on the specialisation of courts and procedures. The research of the PI (X. Kramer) is focused on the overriding themes of access to justice and justice innovation in the European context and developments in the EU in the area of civil justice and in particular Member States, including the Netherlands. Projects and publications focused on these general topics as well as on e-justice (sub-project 1a and 1b) and court specialization (sub-project 4) in particular, while also collaborating on research and publications for subproject 2 and 3. The aim of the research is map and investigate justice innovations with a view to improve regulation and practice of access to justice for EU citizens and to contribute to an EU civil justice system based on best law and practice.
Sub-project 1a: Digitisation - Erlis Themeli (Postdoc)
Results from this project include publications, conference presentations and guest lectures.
The research achievements of E. van Gelder consisted of publications including scientific contributions as well as blog posts, conference presentations, teaching activities and the progress on her PhD thesis. End of 2019 she received an ACES research grant, together with fellow team member E. Themeli and colleague A. van Duin (University of Amsterdam) to organize an academic conference. This grant was based on a grant application they wrote on AI and law.
Sub-project 2: Privatization (ADR) - Alexandre Biard (Postdoc) and Betül Kas (Postdoc)
A. Biard worked on sub-project 2 from September 2017 to November 2019. He published several papers in highly-ranked European and national peer-reviewed journals and books, participated in expert meetings, international events (including the EU-China 3rd Legal Affairs Dialogues in Beijing organized by the EU Commission), conferences and symposiums in Paris, Leicester, Luxembourg, Dubrovnik, and he took part in a summer class on “privatizing dispute resolution” organized by the Max Planck Institute in Luxembourg. A contribution was made on collective redress for the European Parliament, conducted field research in collaboration with the Belgian Consumer Ombudsman. This study made policy recommendations to improve the work of the Consumer Ombudsman that were then presented to its Board of Directors. Several seminars and conferences where organized in Paris and Rotterdam. He gave several lectures to students on consumer redress and is daily supervising the PhD thesis of E. van Gelder. B. Kas started to work on sub-project 2 in January 2020. The initial months have been spent sighting the available literature, concretizing and conceptualizing the research question and working on a research design.
Sub-project 3: Self-representation - Jos Hoevenaars (Postdoc)
Results from this project include publications, conference presentations, guest lectures, interviews and shorter blogposts. The latter include posts on a comparison of legal aid reform in the Netherlands with the current state of legal aid in the UK, and more recently on the impact of the Corona crisis on collective actions. Collaboration with E. van Gelder on the earlier stated survey with the national consumer association ‘The Consumentenbond’ resulted in a forthcoming report. Building on Hoevenaars’ previous research on the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the preliminary reference procedure, this project resulted in (forthcoming) publications (see publication list).
Sub-project 4: Court specialization - Georgia Antonopoulou (PhD)
G. Antonopoulou has published three articles (see publication list). She gave onference presentations, guest lectures and conducted interviews. As part of her PhD, she has completed three chapters of her book International Commercial Courts. She has two research stays at: Max Planck Institute Luxemburg and Singapore Management University School of Law.
Results from this project include publications, conference presentations and guest lectures.
The research achievements of E. van Gelder consisted of publications including scientific contributions as well as blog posts, conference presentations, teaching activities and the progress on her PhD thesis. End of 2019 she received an ACES research grant, together with fellow team member E. Themeli and colleague A. van Duin (University of Amsterdam) to organize an academic conference. This grant was based on a grant application they wrote on AI and law.
Sub-project 2: Privatization (ADR) - Alexandre Biard (Postdoc) and Betül Kas (Postdoc)
A. Biard worked on sub-project 2 from September 2017 to November 2019. He published several papers in highly-ranked European and national peer-reviewed journals and books, participated in expert meetings, international events (including the EU-China 3rd Legal Affairs Dialogues in Beijing organized by the EU Commission), conferences and symposiums in Paris, Leicester, Luxembourg, Dubrovnik, and he took part in a summer class on “privatizing dispute resolution” organized by the Max Planck Institute in Luxembourg. A contribution was made on collective redress for the European Parliament, conducted field research in collaboration with the Belgian Consumer Ombudsman. This study made policy recommendations to improve the work of the Consumer Ombudsman that were then presented to its Board of Directors. Several seminars and conferences where organized in Paris and Rotterdam. He gave several lectures to students on consumer redress and is daily supervising the PhD thesis of E. van Gelder. B. Kas started to work on sub-project 2 in January 2020. The initial months have been spent sighting the available literature, concretizing and conceptualizing the research question and working on a research design.
Sub-project 3: Self-representation - Jos Hoevenaars (Postdoc)
Results from this project include publications, conference presentations, guest lectures, interviews and shorter blogposts. The latter include posts on a comparison of legal aid reform in the Netherlands with the current state of legal aid in the UK, and more recently on the impact of the Corona crisis on collective actions. Collaboration with E. van Gelder on the earlier stated survey with the national consumer association ‘The Consumentenbond’ resulted in a forthcoming report. Building on Hoevenaars’ previous research on the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the preliminary reference procedure, this project resulted in (forthcoming) publications (see publication list).
Sub-project 4: Court specialization - Georgia Antonopoulou (PhD)
G. Antonopoulou has published three articles (see publication list). She gave onference presentations, guest lectures and conducted interviews. As part of her PhD, she has completed three chapters of her book International Commercial Courts. She has two research stays at: Max Planck Institute Luxemburg and Singapore Management University School of Law.
One of the main strengths of this project is the cross-fertilization of the sub-projects which provides a unique picture of access to justice in the EU and contributes to improving the European civil justice system. The researchers collaborate closely in their research and academic activities, through joint research projects, publications, conferences and trainings, and the postdocs are also involved in the supervision of the PhD researchers. This is a catalyst for the individual research and for the overall findings and impact of the project. Substantial additional funding has been already been obtained for a project building on and adding to this project, to be kicked off in the autumn of 2020 (Vici grant Dutch organization for scientific research, NWO).