• What is the problem/issue being addressed?
In many parts of the world, there are several barriers that impede effective access to justice through legal proceedings for citizens. First and foremost, due to financial difficulties many individuals (specifically consumers) are unable to have efficient access to adequate information about their legal rights. As a result, many of these individuals appear in legal proceedings as self-represented litigants. Second, the isolated citizens lose sufficient incentives, power, and knowledge to initiate legal proceedings and pursue their rights. This is mainly due to the organizational barriers in the administration of civil justice. Eventually, the existing traditional and ordinary civil proceedings in courts are not always the best optimal solution for resolving civil disputes in an effective and timely manner. These procedural hurdles are even worst in transnational civil and commercial cases. Currently, cross-border civil proceedings are extremely lengthy, complex, and costly for most individuals. In particular, the lack of adequate and precise information about the competent jurisdiction at both international and local levels for lay citizens; the language disparities resulting in the necessity to translate the claim and other supporting documents; and the divergent interpretations of different national courts in EU are among some of the obstacles that citizens face in pursuing their rights at cross-border level. For these reasons, the lack of online tools and procedures – that can be considered as optimal and feasible solutions to these problems – remain as an unmet need in the modern civil justice systems. These tools can mitigate the costs and lengths of civil proceedings on the one hand and maximize the access to knowledge and competent dispute resolution bodies in every civil justice system on the other.
• Why is it important for society?
The right to effective access to justice is a fundamental right that remains as one of the principal pillars of the rule of law in any civil justice system of a democratic society. Access to competent dispute resolution bodies is considered as a major element in evaluating the efficiency of access to justice for citizens. Despite this, there are several obstacles that hinder this fundamental right. Thence, one of the significant challenges for modern societies is to establish simplified, reliable, and cost-effective procedures and tools for developing Online Dispute Resolution mechanisms. These models of dispute resolution have the potential to minimize barriers to effective access to justice for citizens on the one end and offer them novel opportunities to pursue their rights in a more efficient manner on the other. This approach results in promoting the citizens’ rights to have efficient access to justice.
• What are the overall objectives?
The overall objective of the NEMESIS project is to develop a set of Guidelines for regulating the establishment of Online Dispute Resolution platforms comprising e-negotiation and e-mediation. This overall objective is achieved through the specific research objectives that include investigating the current relevant cases in various recognized civil sectors through realistic analysis; evaluating if and what type of additional regulation is required for the realization of the Online Dispute Resolution; and finally, studying the requirements and needs for establishment of an ODR platform from legal, technical, and technological standpoints. These research objectives were supported by training and transfer of knowledge, dissemination, exploitation, and communicating the obtained results (as carried out during the lifespan of the NEMESIS project).
