News

On 19 November 2024, our Vici team organised an online seminar titled ‘Law in the Public Interest: Collective Redress, and Litigation Funding and Climate Change Regulation’.

The event explored the intersections between legal frameworks and the public interest in a time of increasing concerns about climate change, corporate responsibility, and the cost barriers to pursuing collective justice. As climate change becomes a global priority, regulatory frameworks and climate litigation are holding governments and corporations accountable for their environmental impact. Collective redress and litigation funding also fulfil this role and are gaining prominence in recent years with the adoption of legislation such as the EU Representative Actions Directive and the Dutch WAMCA and with high-profile cases like the Post Office litigation in the UK.

Esteemed speakers were: Eva van der Zee (University of Hamburg, Germany) on Behavioural Insights on Climate Change Law; Koen Rutten (Finch, Netherlands) on Is Funding Collective Litigation still Affordable? and Flora Page (23ES, United Kingdom) on What the Bates v Post Office Litigation reveals about the Pros and Cons of Litigation Funding. The The webinar was introduction and moderated by Adrian Cordina and Xandra Kramer.

Xandra Kramer gave a guest lecture on ‘International commercial courts: a game changer in international litigation?’ at the Neapolis University Pafos in Cyprus on 12 April 2024. She discussed the rise of international commercial courts in the Middle East and Europe, in the context of needs of international business, court specialisation and access to justice and in relation to international arbitration.

Focussing on key features of these courts she gave insights on the different courts, and in particular the Singapore and Netherlands Commercial Court. Highlighting some innovative features and the opportunities the Hague Judgments Convention of 2019 offers, she concluded that these courts have an effect on the international litigation market, but they have not triggered a huge shift from arbitration or other courts to these new business courts.

Xandra Kramer gave a presentation and a workshop on the European Small Claims Procedure in Sofia, Bulgaria on 15 March 2024. This was part of a two-day pan-European legal seminar for court staff and bailiffs on Cross-border enforcement of civil-law claims, organised by the European Law Academy (ERA). Judges, court staff and bailiffs from 10 different Member States participated in the seminar, intended to increase knowledge of and practical training in key instruments of European civil procedure.

On 9 March 2024, at the invitation of Professor Giorgio Afferni from the Department of Law of the University of Genoa, Adriani Dori delivered a lecture on third-party funding of litigation in the EU. Titled “Justice for Sale? TPLF in the EU”, Adriani’s lecture was a component of the IANUA Module Programme “Consumatori e Mercato” organized by the IANUA - Scuola Superiore dell’Università di Genova. In her presentation, Adriani analysed the fundamental characteristics of the growing TPLF market, its operational controversies, and the regulatory challenges it entails. Members of the Department of Law and master’s students from various disciplines, including law, economics, and political sciences, actively participated in a vibrant discussion. Adriani’s lecture marked a segment of her tenure as a Visiting Researcher at the Department of Law of the University of Genoa until the end of 2024.

On 22 and 23 February 2024 a Council Meeting of the European Law Institute took place in Vienna, to discuss institutional matters and project updates. Xandra Kramer, member of the Council since 2021, among other presented the progress of the ongoing project on Digitalisation of Civil Justice Systems in Europe, together with co-reporters Dory Reiling and Anna Skrjabina. The project aism to provide an overarching framework to improve the use of digital technology in the judiciary, while securing fundamental values of civil procedure. Valuable feedback was received and it is expected that the project can be finalized early 2025. One of the other many interesting projects of the ELI is dedicated to Third Party Funding of Litigation, in which our postdoctoral researcher Adriani Dori is involved as project assistant. Project repoters Dame Sara Cockerill and Susanne Augenhofer presented the progress of the project, of which Xandra Kramer is one of the assessors. The project will make a very valuable contribution to ongoing discussions on third party litigation funding. It is expected to be concluded in the autumn of 2024. See also the LinkedIn post of the ELI on the Council meeting.

The ELI-Unidroit Model European Rules of Civil Procedure were adopted in 2020, published by Oxford University Press in 2021. The project evolved from an intensive collaboration of 45 scholars and practitioners starting in 2014. The ERCP is intended as rules of best practices that can serve as model for the European and national legislator. Xandra Kramer was involved in the project as reporter for the Working group on Provisional measures and co-reporter of the overarching Structure working group. On 5-6 February 2024 a conference took place in Vienna intended to discuss novel features of the Model Rules and to review the impact these Model Rules have had so far. Xandra chaired a panel dedicated to New technologies in civil procedure and enforcement. The Model Rules includes numerous references to digital communication, but since the adoption of these rules digital technology and its use in the judiciary and legal practice have rapidly expanded. Both the European Law Institute and Unidroit have continued their work in area, including ELI project on Digitalisation of Civil Justice Systems.

As part of a research collaboration, Adriani Dori continues her role as a visiting researcher at the University of Genoa for the year 2024, building upon the foundation laid in the previous year. Under the supervision of Professor Michele Siri of the Genoa Centre of Law and Finance, Adriani’s research will further explore the intersection of procedural fairness and financial regulation, with a focus on Third-Party Funding of Civil Litigation (TPLF). This extension opens avenues for enhanced synergies between the VICI project and the academic community in Genoa, fostering collaborative teaching and research activities. Moreover, plans are underway for a joint seminar on TPLF organized by Genoa and VICI, facilitating knowledge exchange and academic dialogue in this critical area of study.

Happy New Year’s wishes from our Vici Building European Civil Justice group. This year will mark a range of important events and book publications. We will host a series of webinars that will kick-off in the Spring. We are very happy that after a slow start during the pandemic, the book Research Methods in Private International Law, co-edited by Xandra Kramer and Laura Carballo Piñeiro is scheduled for publication by Elgar in May 2024. It contains fascinating chapters on regulatory, research and teaching approaches, including by our postdoc researchers Adriani Dori and Carlota Ucin. Around the same time we expect that the book Financing Collective Actions in the Netherlands: towards a Litigation Fund will be published by Eleven International Publishing, co-authored by our researchers Xandra Kramer and Jos Hoevenaars in collaboration with Ianika Tzankova and Karlijn van Doorn.This is an updated English version of a report commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Justice. We are also excited about compiling our Handbook on European Civil Procedure, commissioned by The Gruyter that we co-edit together with Stefaan Voet and with a stellar author team. We will also submit the manuscript for our book on Sustainable Access to Justice, following our international conference of October of last year, co-edited by our group members Xandra Kramer, Masood Ahmed, Carlota Ucin and Adriani Dori featuring interesting chapters by our fantastic speakers and our PhD researchers Adrian Cordina and Eduardo Silva de Freitas. The latter two hope to wrap up most of their PhD research this year, together with our group member Antonia Antonopoulou. We are also happy to host guest PhD researcher Zilin Hao for six months who will introduce herself shortly. Our group is open for hosting other visiting researchers and for applications of (self-funded) new PhD candidates this year, and we look forward to many other collaborations to keep broadening our horizons.

Yesterday was a momentous day for our research group as we celebrated the successful defense of Adriani Dori’s PhD dissertation at the University of Heidelberg. Her hard work and dedication have paid off, and we are thrilled to announce that she was awarded summa cum laude.

Adriani’s research has been an inspiration to us all, and we are proud to have her as a member of our team. Her thesis is a testament to her expertise in procedural law. It explores how EU justice policies reshape national procedures and incentivize civil justice reforms, with a focus on the interplay between the rule of law, economic efficiency, and access to justice.

Adriani’s research has been recognized, and we are confident that her work will positively impact the field of procedural law.

Congratulations, Adriani, on this well-deserved achievement!

Xandra Kramer participated in an interview by the Open Innovation Team of the UK government working on civil legal aid in September 2023. She provided information on developments and ongoing innovations in legal aid, digitalisation and specific pathways in the Netherlands, including on the ‘wijkrechter’. She also participated in a follow-up online review of civil legal aid in England & Wales, organised on 17 October 2023 which aimed at exchanging thoughts with experts in different countries.

On request of the Ministry of Justice, Xandra kramer conducted a study on a procedural fund for collective actions, together with Jos Hoevenaars (Council for the Judiciary/Erasmus University Rotterdam), and Ianika Tzankova and Karlijn van Doorn (Tilburg University).

We carried out research to map developments in collective actions, did quantitative research on WAMCA cases and qualitative research on the funding of collective actions, including on developments in the market and regulation of third party litigation funding in the Netherlands and several other countries. Noteworthy is that all claims for damages so far rely on third party funding. The key question we looked into is to what extent a revolving litigation fund could provide a solution to bottlenecks in the funding of collective actions and how such a procedural fund could be designed. Considering the relatively small number of cases for damages that have been brought under the WAMCA so far and uncertainties in legal practice and regulation, coupled with the complexities to set up such a fund, we conclude that the introduction of a revolving litigation fund seems premature. We make a number of suggestions for further research. The report is available here.
We are preparing an English version of the report to be published by Eleven International Publishing - coming soon!

Between February 1 and April 30, 2023, Eduardo Silva de Freitas conducted a research residency at the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for International, European, and Regulatory Procedural Law, generously supported by NWO and Research Luxembourg. During his tenure at the institute, Eduardo delved into his research on litigation crowdfunding. Additionally, he participated in prestigious academic events, including the Comparative Procedural Law and Justice conference and the Forum on the Procedural Law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, further enriching his expertise and fostering meaningful connections within the legal community.

Adriani Dori has been appointed as a visiting researcher at the University of Genoa for the year 2023, following a successful application proposed by Professor Michele Siri of the Genoa Centre of Law and Finance. During her tenure, Adriani will delve into pressing questions at the intersection of procedural fairness and financial regulation, particularly focusing on the implications of Third-Party Funding of Civil Litigation (TPLF).
Her research will explore the effects of financial regulation on TPLF, aiming
to evaluate judicial performance and the current regulatory framework. This
collaborative effort seeks to establish connections between the VICI group and european experts at the Genoa Centre for Law and Finance for mutual academic benefit and exchange. During her visiting research tenure Adriani will continue working for the VICI project from Genoa.

On December 15, 2022, two members of the VICI team, Adriani Dori and fellow Masood Ahmed, delivered online presentations at the 2nd Procedural Law Unit Annual Symposium organised by the School of Law at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus. The event was dedicated in memory of the late Professor Konstantinos Kerameus, one of the most emblematic and influential figures of civil procedural law in Greece. The conference centred around the broader theme “European Civil Procedure After Brexit: delays and need to speed-up, technology in justice and ADR”, attracting the participation of academics and policymakers from across Europe.

Adriani participated in the panel discussing EU cross-border transactions, their challenges, potentials, and solutions. Titled “Challenging Borders through EU Convergence: Unexplored Potentials of Integration Policies”, her presentation delved into the soft-law mechanisms developed within the European Area of Freedom, Security, and Justice (AFSJ) to harmonise Member States’ procedural and justice systems. Masood contributed to a panel focusing on new technologies and their intersection with civil procedure and ADR. His presentation, titled “[A]DRand Digitization within the Civil Justice System of England and Wales”, shed light on the legal, practical, and policy challenges associated with these domains in the UK system.

The conference’s full agenda is available here.

We had the pleasure to host Dr. Jose Caro Catalan of Universidad de Cádiz as a visiting researcher from 20 June till 20 September 2022. Jose reports:

“In the summer of 2022, I carried out a research stay at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam, under the supervision of Professor Kramer, who integrated me into her research group. I did this research stay just after defending my doctoral thesis in Spain, with the idea of exploring new research topics related to the efficiency of civil justice. Specifically, during those months I had the opportunity to learn more about the phenomenon of judicial specialization through the example of international commercial court. Furthermore, the possibility of participating in the group’s internal seminars allowed me to stay up to date with new topics and reflect on the challenges facing civil justice in the European Union. It was a very enriching experience, not only because of the excellent research resources available but, above all, because of the excellent researchers who are part of the group”.

On September 1-2, 2022, Adriani Dori participated in the inaugural International Empirical Legal Studies (ELS) Conference organised by the ELS Academy and hosted by the Faculty of Law of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The conference brought together over 150 empirical legal scholars from around the world, who were engaged, discussed, and presented their research results in the field of empirical legal research.

Adriani’s presentation, titled “Reforming Justice through the European Semester Process: An Empirical Analysis”, focused on the European Commission’s role in incentivising justice reforms within the framework of EU economic governance through the issuance of country-specific recommendations (CSRs). Using a comprehensive coding scheme developed in her research, Adriani presented empirical and statistical findings regarding variables such as the legal basis, content, recipients, and effectiveness of CSRs issued in the policy area of justice. Her insights shed light on the Commission’s policymaking strategy and Member States’ responsiveness to justice reform recommendations.

Preceding the official opening of the conference, the European Society for Empirical Legal Studies (ESELS) was founded, aiming to foster exchange among legal scholars engaged in empirical research across Europe.

Carlota Ucín was invited to participate in a Seminar organised at the University of Barcelona on the topic: Consumer rights and housing, financing and dispute resolution. Her talk ‘Las formas del litigio de interés público y la tutela de los consumidores’ (The shapes of public interest litigation and the effective protection of consumers), focused on the characteristics of public interest litigation in the Global South, the reasons that can explain its evolution and the shapes it adopted in the Argentinean experience. She proposed the importance of applying the ‘public interest approach’ in order to facilitate access to justice of consumers in general and in the cases of housing claims in particular. This debate became particularly timely due to the discussion in Spain of a draft regulation related to the improvement of efficiency in civil procedures.

On 14 July 2022, Xandra Kramer participated in a very well attended webinar on International Commercial courts, organized by the univerties of Bologna, Milan and Verona. Her talk ‘Commercializing Litigation: The Case of the Netherlands Commercial Court’, focused on the reasons why the NCC has been established, international justice competition, the key features of the NCC and the future prospects. While so far the number of cases the NCC has dealt with is limited, change takes time and the quality, efficiency and international outreach of the NCC are promising.

Carlota Ucín has participated in the Conference: ‘Courts as an Arena for Societal Change’ that took place on the 8 and 9 July 2022, at Leiden Law School. In her presentation, she developed some ideas from her recent book: Inequality on trials. The defence of social rights through the judicial process (in Spanish). In particular, she focused on the importance of introducing some reforms within the judicial process to legitimate the role of courts in public interest litigation. She presented the idea of the ‘deliberative legitimacy of courts’ that implies the possibility of opening up the dialogue between interested and affected groups through public hearings as well as enforcing the duty of justification of the judges by applying a scheme of argumentation that includes a more sophisticated proportionality test.

Thanks to all the participants and speakers for making the seminar series “Trends and Challenges in Costs and Funding of Civil Justice” possible! In the course of seven months, we had over 500 registrations for seven seminars with industry and academic experts.

Your support was essential to expand our mission to provide the community with awareness on current issues in litigation costs and funding. We hope to see you again at one of our upcoming workshops, seminars, and conferences!

Sincerely,

VICI project team

We had the pleasure to host Tommaso Ferrario of the University of Ferrara, Italy at our Building European Civil Justice research group at Erasmus School of Law from 1 March till 30 June 2022. His account of the research stay:

“During my PhD program, I had the pleasure to spend four months (from March to June 2022) as a visiting researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam under Professor Xandra Kramer. It was a very fruitful period as I found the best conditions for finalizing my research on the topic of the ascertainment and application of foreign law in European private international law. In particular, I experienced an excellent working environment where I could have access to the University library as well as daily discussions about my thesis with Professor Kramer and other colleagues from all over the world. Moreover, not only I was allowed to attend the scientific seminars organized by the department and by Professor Kramer’s research group but also to give a presentation of my research. For all these reasons I consider my research stay at Erasmus University Rotterdam a very formative experience that optimized my educational path and gave a precious contribution to my future career”.

Carlota Ucin was kindly invited to give a presentation at the Public Interest Clinic at the University of Alicante in Spain. She presented there the shapes that Public Interest Litigation can adopt and the way this can serve access to justice of human rights. This is related to the topic of her recent book: Juicio a la desigualdad, (Inequality on trials, Marcial Pons, 2021).

On 22 June 2022 a hybrid seminar dedicated to Regulation of Third Party Funding in the EU will take place at Erasmus University Rotterdam/online.

This seminar is the last one in a seminar series on Trends and Challenges in Costs and Funding of Civil Justice organised by the team of the Vici project ‘Affordable Access to Justice’ at Erasmus School of Law. The series kicked off in December 2021 with a general session that addressed several topics of access to justice and costs and funding, including collectiveredress and costs reforms, and a Law & Economics perspective. The second seminar in January 2022 was dedicated to legal mobilisation in the EU. The third one in February addressed the impact of Public Interest Litigation on access to justice, and the fourth one in March litigation funding in Europe from a market perspective. The April seminar zoomed in on austerity policies and litigation costs reforms, and the May session was dedicated to funding and costs of ADR.

UPCOMING EVENT:

Wednesday, 22 June 2022 (14-18 CEST)

For in person participation register here (Erasmus University Rotterdam)

For online participation register here.

PROGRAM

13.30 Registration

14.00 Opening and Welcoming Remarks

Professor Xandra Kramer (Erasmus University Rotterdam/Utrecht University, the Netherlands)

14.10-15.45 Keynote Speech

Professor Geert Van Calster (KU Leuven, Belgium)

Session I – Current Status and the Need for Further Regulation

Chair: Professor Xandra Kramer

Stakeholder roundtable:

• Paulien van der Grinten (Senior Legislative Lawyer, Ministry of Justice and Security, the Netherlands)

• Johan Skog (Partner, Kapatens, Sweden)

• David Greene (Partner, Edwin Coe, England)

Discussant: Quirijn Bongaerts (Partner, Birkway, The Netherlands)

15:45 – 16.15 Coffee Break

16.15 – 18.00 Session II – Modes and Levels of Regulation

Chair: Dr. Eva Storskrubb (Uppsala University, Sweden; Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Panel:

• Kai Zenner (European Parliament, Head of Office (MEP Axel Voss))

• Tets Ishikawa (Managing Director, LionFish Litigation Finance Ltd, England)

• Professor Victoria Sahani (Arizona State University, USA)

• Professor Albert Henke (Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy)

On 28 April 2022, Eva Storskrubb participated as a speaker and panelist together with Prof. Paul Oberhammer (University of Vienna) and Prof. Albert Henke (Universitá di Milano Statale) in the 10th and final session of the online seminar series “Exploring the ELI-Unidroit European Rules of Civil Procedure” organized by Prof. Marco de Benito at IE University (Madrid). The theme of the session was “Costs and Third-Party Funding”, and the panel was moderated by Carlota Ucín postdoctoral researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam (member of the Vici project).

On May 16th, Jos was asked to join an event organized by the PhD organization of Erasmus School of Law within the series ‘coffee with an expert’. The event focused on ethical dilemmas in empirical research. Jos was asked, based on his ample experience in qualitative research methodology, to act as a panelist and to discuss and debate ethical dilemmas that may arise when conduction empirical data collection. The lively discussion that followed presentations on data management and storage, focused in on ethical dilemmas regarding access to respondents, relationship with participants, and informed consent.

On May 11th Jos joined other authors for the launch of the long-awaited book ‘Researching the European Court of Justice: Methodological Shifts and Law’s Embeddedness’, edited by Edited by Mikael Rask Madsen (University of Copenhagen) Fernanda Nicola (American University, Washington DC) and Antoine Vauchez (Université Paris 1-Sorbonne). This new book, presented by the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre of Excellence for International Courts(iCourts) at the university of Copenhagen, takes stock of the on-going ‘methodological turn’ in the field of EU law scholarship. Introducing a new generation of scholars of the European Court of Justice from law, history, sociology, political science and linguistics, the book provides a set of novel interdisciplinary research strategies and empirical materials for the study of the Court of Justice of the European Union. In his contribution Jos describes the use of a bottom-up approach in studying the dynamics behind litigation before the CJEU by drawing on research conducted among litigating parties that saw their cases referred to Luxembourg through a reference for a preliminary ruling.

From December 2021 to June 2022, the team of the Vici project ‘Affordable Access to Justice’ at Erasmus School of Law is organising an online seminar series dedicated to the Trends and Challenges in Costs and Funding of Civil Justice.

The series “Trends and Challenges in Costs and Funding of Civil Justice” kicked off in December 2021 with a general session that addressed several topics of access to justice and costs and funding, including collective redress and costs reforms, and a Law & Economics perspective. The second seminar in January 2022 was dedicated to legal mobilisation in the EU. The third one in February addressed the impact of Public Interest Litigation on access to justice, and the fourth one in March litigation funding in Europe from a market perspective. The remaining seminars will zoom in on austerity policies and litigation costs reforms, funding and costs of ADR in civil justice, and EU regulation of Third Party Funding.

You can register for (one or more of) the seminars here.

UPCOMING EVENT:

Wednesday, 25 May 2022 (15-17 CEST)

Funding and Costs of ADR in the Civil Justice System

To attend the online event, please register here.

Program:

15.45 - 15.00: Registration / Zoom Connection

15.00 - 15.15: Masood Ahmed (Leicester Law School)

Welcome Address and Introduction

15.15 – 15.35: Sue Prince (University of Exeter)

Building bridges and fences: Mapping routes to resolving disputes using technology

15.35 - 15.55: Nicolas Kyriakides (University of Nicosia)

Affordability of ADR in Cyprus in light of new Civil Procedure Rules

15.55 – 16.10: Break

16.10 - 16.30: Dorcas Quek Anderson (Singapore Management University)

Counting the Cost of Enlarging the Role of ADR in Funding Civil Justice

16.30 - 17.00: Discussion & Conclusion of the Seminar

More information and registration here.

The Speakers:

Sue Prince is the Head of the Law School at the University of Exeter. Her research interests focus on access to justice in the civil courts looking particularly at the role of court-based mediation. She has conducted a number of empirical studies of the impact of mediation in the courts for bodies such as the Civil Justice Council and the Ministry of Justice.

Nicolas Kyriakides is a lawyer, academic and lobbyist. He is a graduate of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, he holds postgraduate degrees from UCL and NYU and a PhD (DPhil) from the University of Oxford. He has also been a visiting researcher at Harvard University.

Dorcas Quek Anderson is Associate Dean (Student, Staff & Alumni Affairs) and an Assistant Professor of Law in the Singapore Management University’s Yong Pung How School of Law. As a practising mediator and a former District Judge in the State Courts, Dorcas’ research is drawn from her experience and explores the interaction between dispute resolution developments and access to justice. Her research has been published in leading international journals including the Civil Justice Quarterly and the Harvard Negotiation Law Review.

The team of the Vici project ‘Affordable Access to Justice’ at Erasmus School of Law is organizing an online seminar series dedicated to Trends and Challenges in Costs and Funding of Civil Justice. The events of the series run from December 2021 to June 2022.

The 5^th seminar of the series took place on 20 April 2022, 14-16 CET and was dedicated to Austerity policies and litigation costs reforms. The EU economic crises of the last decades and the ensuing austerity policies deeply impacted justice budgets in many EU jurisdictions and triggered justice reforms, particularly in the area of litigation costs. The seminar has offered the opportunity of reflecting on the implications of litigation costs reforms on access to justice and procedural efficiency. The speakers’ presentations and the following debate have highlighted a number of perspectives, which also reflected the diverse national backgrounds of the participants.

Panagiotis Perakis (CCBE Vice President) focused on the case of Greece. Using empirical data, he addressed the question of to what extent costs of litigation increased in Greece. He also explored in more detail how Greek justice reform policies have affected access to justice for the citizens and the efficiency of national courts.

Paula Costa e Silva (Lisbon University) provided a legal and economic analysis of the reforms implemented in Portugal before, during and after the financial crisis. Her presentation addressed, among others, the practical consequences for the users and providers of justice services and the need for the design of robust evidence-based justice policies.

Fernando Gascón Inchausti (Complutense University of Madrid) presented the case of Spain. His presentation focused on the instrumental use of costs as a lever for adjusting the volume of litigation in Spain also in light of mass consumer litigation and recent CJEU jurisprudence on unfair contractual terms.

The seminar was introduced and moderated by Adriani Dori, Academic Researcher of the Vici project at Erasmus School of Law.

Xandra Kramer was kindly invited to give a presentation at a meeting of the Private International Law working group of the Law Society of England and Wales on 11 April 2022. The purpose was to provide an update on EU developments in the area of private international law, including on the interaction between England and Wales and the EU post Brexit. She discussed the enforcement of judgments and jurisdictional implications, including the Hague Choice of Court Convention, the (problematic) possible accession of the UK to the Lugano Convention, and the new Hague Judgment Convention. She also briefly addressed the establishment of international commercial courts in several Member States, including the Netherlands, the new Representative Action Directive as well as the ongoing evaluation of the Brussels I regulation and the ADR and ODR instruments.

From December 2021 – June 2022, the team of the Vici project ‘Affordable Access to Justice’ at Erasmus School of Law organizes an online seminar series dedicated to Trends and Challenges in Costs and Funding of Civil Justice.

The fourth seminar was dedicated to Litigation Funding in Europe: A Market Perspective and took place on 23 March 2022, 15-17 CET. The funding of the costs of litigation, an essential dimension of accessing civil justice, was discussed. Among the topics presented were the current litigation funding landscape in Europe with particular attention to Third Party Funding (TPF) and collective redress. The pricing considerations for TPF and the ethical implications of TPF in international arbitration were also discussed.

Stefaan Voet (KU Leuven University) gave a brief overview of the current litigation funding landscape in Europe, with particular attention to third party litigation funding and collective redress and current and possible forthcoming legislation on TPF.

Thomas Kohlmeier (Nivalion AG) compared different concepts to provide access to justice such as legal aid, legal expenses insurance and TPF, with a special focus with a special focus on the pricing considerations for TPF.

Yihua Chen (Erasmus School of Law) discussed whether the existing international arbitration regime can adequately address the ethical implications of third-party funders for the professional conduct of arbitrators and lawyers representing clients. He focussed on the ethical implications for the independence and impartiality of arbitrators, as well as for the lawyers’ independence and their professional obligations to funded parties and arbitral tribunals.

After finalizing most of the research within the ERC project, Jos has moved on to a new position as executive project manager and senior researcher within a new research project. This research project, commissioned by the WODC and led by Prof. Xandra Kramer and Prof. Ianika Tzankova (Tilburg University), aims to investigate the usefulness and necessity of a revolving litigation fund for mass claims in the Dutch legal system. The study will map developments in collective redress, and existing means to finance collective actions, including legal aid, insurance, and third party litigation funding, and identify problems in funding. It will investigate whether creating a (public) fund for collective redress is desirable, also taking into account such funds in other jurisdictions (among others Canada and Israel), and if so, how such a fund can be set up.In addition to his role as a senior researcher, Jos acts as executive project manager.

From March till November 2022, we will be conducting a research on a procedural fund for collective redress, commissioned by the Research and Documentation Center (WODC) and the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. The study will map developments in collective redress, and existing means to finance collective actions, including legal aid, insurance, and third party litigation funding, and identify problems in funding. It will investigate whether creating a (public) fund for collective redress is desirable, also taking into account such funds in other jurisdictions (among others Canada and Israel), and if so, how such a fund can be set up.

The study is conducted in collaboration with Tilburg University (prof. Ianika Tzankova) and will be carried out primarily by Xandra Kramer and Jos Hoevenaars, with the support of the Vici group.

From December 2021 – June 2022, the team of the Vici project ‘Affordable Access to Justice’ at Erasmus School of Law is organing an online seminar series dedicated to Trends and Challenges in Costs and Funding of Civil Justice.

The third took place on 16 February 2022 and was dedicated to the impact of public interest litigation on access to justice: An empirical perspective. Public Interest litigation can be a way of providing access to justice to certain causes related to human rights and other fundamental claims. The climate change litigation movement shows how can human rights approach provide a strong basis for this kind of collective claims.This emerging contitutional practice can indeed cooperate in access to justice in this broad sense but may also prove to be effective in terms of its impact. Bringing tocourt some strategic cases and building up a case around some public goods may provide greater results than individual claims. But this impact has to be conceptualised and then measured.From this perspective the speakers presented their research.

Event program:

14.45 – 15.00: Connecting on Zoom.

15.00 – 15.15: Carlota Ucín
(Erasmus Law School), Welcoming words and introduction

15.15 – 15.40: Prof. Dr Maurice Sunkin* (University of Essex),

15.45 – 16.10: Prof. Dr Siri Gloppen** (University of Bergen),

16.15 – 16.40: Prof Dr. LaDawn Haglund ***(Arizona State University)

16.45 – 17.00: Q & A

*Prof. Dr Maurice Sunkin is Professor of Public Law and Socio-Legal Studies in the School of Law at the University of Essex. He is an Associate Member of Landmark Chambers, London; a member of the Administrative Justice Council; a member of the expert group advising the government on its evaluation of the current major programme of court and tribunal reform; a member of the Eastern Region’s Advisory Group on Counter Terrorism; and a member of the Civil Justice Council’s sub committee on Pre Action Protocols in Judicial Review.

** Prof. Dr Siri Gloppen is Professor and Director of the Centre on Law & Social Transformation in the Department of Administration and Organization Theory at Bergen University. Her main contribution to the field of socio-legal studies is the conceptualisation, theorisation and empirical study of the use of law and legal institutions at a political tool and strategy for social change – how this plays out in different contexts, is engaged by diverse actors, and in various policy fields and institutional arenas.

***Dr LaDawn Haglund is associate professor and Faculty Lead of Justice & Social Inquiry at Arizona State University, as well as President of ASU’s Tempe Academic Assembly and Senior Global Futures Scholar at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. Her work is situated at the intersection of political economy, human rights, and sustainability, with a focus on justice and social change. Her current empirical research examines legal, institutional, and political dimensions of social rights in the context of capitalism, urbanization, and global environmental change.

From December 2021 – June 2022, the team of the Vici project ‘Affordable Access to Justice’ at Erasmus School of Law organizes an online seminar series dedicated to Trends and Challenges in Costs and Funding of Civil Justice.

The second seminar was dedicated to Legal Mobilization: A European Perspective, and took place on 19 January 2022, 15-17 CET. This discussed recent scholarship on legal mobilization at the Pan-European level in the context of EU Migration Law, EU Data Protection Law, and European Human Rights Law.

Lisa Harms (University of Münster) presented on Human rights advocacy and the transnational regulation of religion: The case of Muslim legal mobilization. She focused on the case of Muslim legal mobilization at the ECtHR and present quantitative data collected regarding the legal mobilization of religious groups at the ECtHR as well as in-depth interviews conducted with litigants and their supporters.

Virginia Passalacqua (Utrecht University) presented on Legal mobilization via preliminary references: the case of migrant rights. She discussed how the EU Court of Justice became a central venue for migrant rights defenders that increasingly rely on the preliminary reference procedure to challenge national anti-migration policies. However, legal mobilization varies greatly among Member States: some countries make multiple references and others make none. Virginia Passalacqua’s presentation will shed light on the factors that facilitate or hamper legal mobilization for migrant rights before the EU Court.

Sanja Badanjak (University of Edinburgh)prestented on Constitutional review as an opportunity structure for legal mobilization in the EU. She addressed how constitutional complaints offer routes through which citizens’ mobilization in defence of their rights may be realized. In the EU, this can be used to voice opposition and change EU law via the preliminary reference procedure. However, this also requires further consideration of cross-country variation in citizens’ access to constitutional litigation.

From December 2021 – June 2022, the team of the Vici project ‘Affordable Access to Justice’ at Erasmus School of Law organizes an online seminar series dedicated to Trends and Challenges in Costs and Funding of Civil Justice.

First session: Access to Justice and Costs and Funding of Civil Litigation

On 15 December 2021, the series kicked off with a general session that will address several topics of access to justice and costs and funding, including collective redress and costs reforms, and presented a present a Law & Economics perspective.This first session was combined with the launch of the book New Pathways to Civil Justice in Europe (Springer, 2021) that resulted from an earlier conference organized by the ERC project team.

Judith Resnik (Yale University) who authored the concluding chapter (available open access), among others, discussed the question from which perspective to understand the civil legal system so as to make judgments about whether a system is just or unjust.

Ianika Tzankova (Tilburg University) focused on access to justice against the background of trends in global dispute resolution where big players are shaping the future, and the funding of litigation.

John Sorabji (University College London) zoomed in on developments in costs and funding of civil justice, including the move to recoverable fees, the upcoming review of the Jackson costs reform and funding of representative actions.

Louis Visscher (Erasmus School of Law) presented a Law & Economics perspective on costs and funding, including rational apathy, risk aversion and agency problems.

The seminar was introduced and moderated by Xandra Kramer, PI of the Vici and ERC projects at Erasmus School of Law.

On 13 October 2021, Revista Jurisprudencia Argentina has published Carlota Ucin’s paper about the imprisonment conditions in Buenos Aires.

Tutela judicial efectiva en litigios estructurales. A propósito de las condiciones de detención en la Provincia de Buenos Aires (Effective judicial protection in structural claims. About the imprisonment conditions in Buenos Aires Province) in: Revista Jurisprudencia Argentina, JA 2021 - IV, fasc. 3, 13/10/2021, pp 3-10.

Abstract

The Argentinean Supreme Court of Justice has recently issued a new ruling in the Verbitsky case related to the imprisonment conditions. The decision, which I will refer to as Verbitsky II, tackles some relevant issues that I would like to highlight and analyze in this paper. These points are the effectiveness of the judicial protection of persons that are deprived of their liberty, the notion of procedural efficacy and the efficiency of the process in general and of habeas corpus in particular. The richness of the case allows me to rely on it to exemplify some particularities of the litigation that, raised in the Public Interest, seek to introduce structural reform of a collective situation that is considered unconstitutional or detrimental to human rights recognized in the Constitution and international conventions.

In this paper, Carlota Ucín analyzes the recent case “Milieudefensie vs. Shell”. The decision adopted in the first instance condemned the company to achieve a net reduction of at least 45% of emissions by 2030, taking as a reference the values of 2019. This particular form of Public Interest Litigation, oriented to mitigate climate change, imposes new ways of understanding law and jurisdiction. In this sense, the ruling highlights an expansive interpretation of the content of human rights, used in the case as an interpretive key for the precision of state and private obligations.

Xandra Kramer gave lectures and led a workshop for EU court staff on European Cross-Border Civil Procedures in Helsinki on 22 and 23 September 2021. She discussed the Brussels I-bis Regulation, the European Enforcement Order, the Order for Payment and the Small Claims procedures. This course is part of a programme on Court Staff Training in the
EU, coordinated by the European Law Academy (Trier), in which she has also been involved to prepare training materials for courses throughout the EU. In this course 23 judges and other judicial staff members from 9 different EU Member States took place. It was the first one that could take place live since the Spring of
2020.

The ERC team is organizing, together with BIICL and UNIL the conference Taking Stock: International Commercial Courts in Europe and Asia. The conference will take place on 17 September, in a hybrid format (London - limited places - and online). You can register via the BICCL website.

In recent years, International Commercial Courts have been established across Europe and in Asia. Now that these courts have been dealing with international cases for a while, it is time to take stock and look at various questions: the reasons behind the recent proliferation of these courts and their international features in terms of court language, judicial composition, parties and disputes; the perspectives of court users and judges on key features of these courts, their suitability for specific kinds of disputes and the handling of international commercial disputes in practice; the interface between International Commercial Courts and arbitration, in particular in jurisdictions with well-developed arbitration centres; and the ever more important question how these courts deal with global challenges such as Covid 19, Digitalisation & AI.

More information and the program available here.

The Fourth seminar of the EU Civil Justice Seminar Series took place on Thursday July 1^st. The seminar focused on the private law aspects of climate litigation. Striking a bridge between his current work on (self)representation in civil justice and past work on strategic litigation and the representation of public interest through law, Jos Hoevenaars brought together a panel to discuss the most recent developments in climate change litigation.

In that context, the recent Milieudefensie/Shell decision of the district court of The Hague signifies a move in climate change litigation from targeting mainly the responsibilities of governments in curtailing the effects of climate change, like in the already famous Urgenda case, to suing corporations, and using the courts to force multinationals to adjust their practices. The panel of speakers discussed the implications the Shell decisions at the crossroads of strategic litigation, collective representation, civil tort law and human rights in climate litigation.

Chantal Mak, professor of Professor of Private law at the Amsterdam Centre for Transformative Private Law (ACT) analyzed the Shell decisions and highlighted the human rights angle of climate change litigation. Professor Geert van Calster, Head of the department of European and international law at the University of Leuven, gave an overview of the private international law aspects of climate change litigation. And finally, Sanne Biesmans, PhD candidate at the Business Law Institute of the Radboud University Nijmegen, analysed the Shell decision from a corporate liability perspective and sketched a future outlook for corporations and how this decision may affect their practices going forward.

The seminar was very well-attended, with some 65 participants joining for the subsequent discussions.

Carlota Ucín gave lectures at the Public Lawyers training body in Argentina (ECAE) during April and May 2021. She developed some topics on argumentative theory and law practice. In this course, lawyers that work on the defence of the State participated as part of their training program. She also gave some lectures on the postgraduate course on argumentative theory in Paraguay, Argentina and Colombia, in August and November and December respectively.

The third seminar of the EU Civil Justice Seminar Series took place on Friday 4^th of June 2021. The Seminar touched upon the topic of European digital constitutionalism and remedies. In the past two decades, the European Union has developed a framework of European digital constitutionalism. This framework was prompted as a reaction towards the predominance of digital private norm activities which were accelerating within the EU. Within this EU framework, there are various remedies and dispute resolution mechanisms available. These remedies are not just public remedies, but also bottom-up approaches to enforcement. For example, the Facebook Oversight Board presents a form of private adjudication. The European Commission proposal for a Digital Services Act (DSA) acknowledges the need to regulate such online platforms, for instance it requires online platforms to be transparent about why they take particular decisions.

Giovanni De Gregorio, who is a postdoc at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies at the University of Oxford, kicked of the seminar with providing the introduction of the topic European digital constitutionalism. He explained how the remedies within the framework are shaped and why these remedies have been made available. He noted the shift which is experienced from digital liberalism to digital constitutionalism.

The second speaker, Catalina Goanta, who is an assistant professor at Maastricht University, touched upon the platform powers. She explained that platforms are offering much more functions than just content, such as commercial functions of social commerce. She gave the example of Instagram, through which people can buy shoes. Catalina stressed the importance of asking the question on how to answer to this increasing power of these platforms. In this regard, Catalina addressed the potential of the DSA.

The third speaker was Clara Iglesias Keller, who is a postdoc research fellow at the Leibniz Institute for Media research and at WBZ Berlin Social Sciences Centre. She touched upon the topic of judicial review and constitutionalism. She highlighted the complexity of drawing up regulation for the Internet and also raised concerns of how claims can be redressed, as she pointed out that some claims are not brought to court.

A vivid discussion followed raising numerous insights and food for future thought.

The second EU Civil Justice seminar took place on Friday, 21 May 2021. On Focus during this seminar were the attempts of the European Union to digitise cross-border judicial cooperation. The aim of this initiative is to reduce the hurdles for such cooperation and eliminate the need for paper. Digital technologies are mature and safe enough to exchange sensitive documents between Member States institutions. Both citizens and public institutions will benefit from the speed and low costs of these solution. Considering this perspective, the European Commission is considering different routes which the speakers of the seminar discussed. Gösta Petri from the DG Justice explained the background and some of the implications that the digitisation of EU cross-border collaboration implies. He stressed the importance of digitisation and the need to evaluate already exiting tools. The next speaker, Sandra Taal from the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands, provided an overview of eCodex, a cross-border communication infrastructure for the exchange of documents in Europe. eCodex has proven to be a very useful and reliable tool which explains why the EU plans to invest more on it. Taal agrees with Petri about the need to integrate eCodex with any other possible solution that Commission’s consultation will produce. The third speaker, Alina Ontanu from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, provided an extensive and in-depth overview of several European attempt to digitise cross-border judicial collaboration. While these experiences have had different degrees of success, they should be considered in their entirety and better orchestrated to achieve their goal. Erlis Themeli, who served as host and moderator, used the development of the voting procedure for the Eurovision Song Contest (which was taking place in Rotterdam during that same week) to make parallels with the need for more digitisation in Europe. This was the spark that ignited the discussion about the importance of cross-border digitisation, which turned out to be both inspiring and insightful for the speakers and the audience alike.

On Thursday 6 May, our seminar series on ‘EU Civil Justice’ kicked off with a general introduction to the series by Xandra Kramer. The first two-hour seminar dealt with the role of out-of-court justice in the European enforcement landscape. Taking a holistic perspective, our invited speaker Fabrizio Cafaggi (Judge at the Italian Council of State, former professor at the EUI and the University of Trento) talked about the role of Article 47 EUCFR in shaping the interaction between different enforcement processes. Specifically, Cafaggi explained how Article 47 EUCFR has institutional implications for the balance between individual and collective redress and for the relationship between judicial and administrative enforcement as well as ADR. The Court of Justice of the European Union has played a key role in employing the fundamental right to an effective remedy to give shape to their complementarity. Reference points are the Court’s rulings in Cases C-73/16 - Puškár, C-317/08 - Alassini, C-75/16 - Menini and Rampanelli and C-381/14 - Sales Sinués. According to Cafaggi, the case-law shows that Article 47 generally favors choice between different processes. However, mandatory sequences that oblige to either exhaust administrative remedies or attempt ADR before accessing judicial remedies are not excluded as long as certain conditions are met. Betül Kas (post-doctoral researcher, Erasmus University Rotterdam) zoomed in on the relationship between ADR and court proceedings in collective disputes by discussing the highly contentious collective settlement in the Volkswagen litigation in Germany. Kas reconstructed the procedural and practical circumstances that lead the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband - vzbv) to settle outside the procedural scope of the German model case procedure (Musterfeststellungsklage). While this move withdrew the settlement from the safeguards installed within the procedure and any judicial oversight, it enhanced the choice of individual consumers, which could either accept Volkswagen’s settlement offer or pursue individual judicial proceedings benefitting from the suspension of the limitation period. The topic of collective settlements raises interesting questions about safeguarding Article 47 in opt-in/opt-out mechanisms and as to the degree of judicial involvement required in collective settlements. The discussion raised further interesting question of a principal nature, such as the meaning of ‘privatization’ and ‘effectiveness’ in EU civil justice.

In this paper, Carlota Ucín argues that the claims that seek to enforce social rights may find it difficult to prove the facts that support them. This can be explained by the indeterminacy of the normative statements and by the asymmetry in access to public information. As she claims, presumptions can alleviate evidentiary difficulties, with a clear benefit on access to justice for these cases.

On 1 and 2 April 2020, ERC project members Erlis Themeli and Emma van Gelder co-organized the conference ‘Digital and Intelligent Europe: EU Citizens and the Challenges of New Technologies for Civil Justice’, together with Anna van Duin and Rachel Rietveld (University of Amsterdam). The two-day conference revolved around EU citizens in their search for justice in an increasingly digitized world. Digital technologies can reduce barriers to access to justice by offering more affordable, swifter and simpler solutions. Key notes were delivered by Natali Helberger and Tania Sourdin and the three panels evolved around the topics of digital and intelligent out of court procedure, digital and intelligent justice solutions for supporting the court, and digital and intelligent courts. The conference brought together academics and practitioners from around the world and resulted in vivid discussions and a lot of food for thought. We will prepare a full conference report in the upcoming days.

Xandra Kramer presented at a conference organized by Emory University Law School and Oxford University on developments in civil justice in the US and Europe, Qua Vadis civil justice? The first part of this three-part Zoom event on Trends in Civil Procedure took place on 26 March 2021. One of the statements was that European civil justice policy, contrary to the US, while also under pressure from the efficiency advocates, continues to focus on encouraging litigation. Xandra focused on collectivizing litigation in Europe and the Netherlands in particular. She discussed trends and developments in European civil justice, where in recent years collective redress and digitisation have been key issues and in the Netherlands where the establishment of the Netherlands Commercial Court in 2019 and the completion of the collective redress system in 2020 are highlights. Despite the emphasis on collective redress in recent years, there are no indications that litigation has become more important. In the European context, enhancing ADR by putting quality standards into place and the setting up the ODR platform are equally important.

In 2020, the Comparative Procedural Law and Justice project (CPLJ) of the Max Planck Institute on Procedural law in Luxembourg, funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund, kicked off. This is a global project in which more than one hundred scholars participate. It aims a comprehensive study of comparative civil procedural law and civil dispute resolution and to understanding the rules in their cultural context. The work is divided into different sections, including on technology, ADR and collective redress and will result in the publication of a Compendium on Comparative Civil Justice. Alexandre Biard participates in the team on collective redress. Xandra Kramer participates in the team working on special forms of procedure. On 26 February 2021, she presented the work of this group so far at one of the seminars of the CPLJ project.

On 17-18 February 2021, the Bar Ilan University Faculty of Law organised the conference Digital Governance in the Times of Covid-19. The Conference focused on changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and how many aspects of our (legal) life turned from analogue to digital. During the second day, Erlis Themeli presented in the Online Courts During Covid-19 and Beyond panel, together with Professor Schmitz (University of Missouri School of Law) and Adv. Naqui (PEW Charitable Trusts). Erlis spoke on how in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic Dutch courts went digital. He considered this event both a cure and a disease. A disease because it threatened the right to access to justice for many; but also a cure, because it showed that courts can be dynamic and use technology to improve access to justice for many. Two other panels in the conference focused on Algorithmic Regulation and Digital Policy Tools During Covid-19 and Zoom Parliaments During Covid-19 respectively. Two keynote speeches from Prof. Frank Pasquale (Brooklyn Law School) and Prof. Richard Susskind (Oxford) provided a fertile ground for discussion and interesting ideas for further research.

On 10 February 2021, Georgia and Erlis were invited as guest lectures at the Private Law Master programme of the Erasmus School of Law. This was a special master class where students follow advanced level lectures from experts in the field. They were asked to lecture about international commercial courts, which is a topic of growing importance. Georgia and Erlis consider that the competition of civil justice systems and dispute resolution methods incites international commercial courts to market their features in order to raise awareness on their recent establishment and attract disputes. This development raises many questions about the development of these courts in particular and public litigation in general. Before the lecture, students were asked to reflect on this topic and discuss with Georgia and Erlis. The class was successful in drawing up the complex nature and activities of international commercial courts, but it also produced food for thoughts for both students and lecturers.

Xandra Kramer participated in a webinar within the Civil Procedure Series organized by IE Law School, Madrid. The series focuses on the ELI-Unidroit Model European Rules of Civil Procedure. Xandra discussed the creation, general principles and future of the Model Rules, Emmanuel Jeuland focused on language and translation issues and Fernando Gascon on comparative aspects of the project. The webinar was hosted by Marco de Benito.