ABSTRACT
Civil justice remains in constant flux. The design of a sustainable civil justice system for the 21st century is continuously discussed both at national and international level. Particularly at international level, several soft law instruments have been adopted in recent years such as the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the European Law Institute (ELI) statement on the relationship between formal and informal justice and the ELI/UNIDROIT Model Rules of European Civil Procedure. Against this background, the conference ‘Frontiers in Civil Justice’, held on 16 and 17 November 2020, discussed four paramount trends in civil justice in light of their contribution of facilitating access to justice. Those trends concern the shaping of the interaction between formal and informal justice (panel I), the digitalization of consumer dispute resolution (panel II), the collectivizing and monetizing of civil litigation (panel III) and innovation in civil justice (panel IV). Renowned speakers and selected speakers following a call for papers critically reflected on the opportunities and possible drawbacks ensuing from these developments during the two-day conference that was forced to move fully online due to the tightening of Covid-19 measures in the Netherlands. The event was framed by two keynote speeches by Hrvoje Grubisic (Directorate-General Justice and Consumers, European Commission) focusing on current efforts of the European Commission regarding the digitalization of justice and Dame Hazel Genn (University College London) reflecting on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on access to justice in the UK. Following the format of the conference, this report outlines the main takeaways from the contributions.
Jos Hoevenaars and Betül Kas, Conference Report: ‘Frontiers in Civil Justice’, 16 and 17 November 2020, Erasmus University Rotterdam (March 1, 2021) (2021) 29 European Review of Private Law, issue 1, pp 143-156.
First posted 2021-04-23 13:45:20
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