Written by leading authorities in the field of European civil procedure and collective redress, this timely book explores the model collective proceedings rules in the ELI/UNDROIT European Rules of Civil Procedure. It explains the intended application of this ‘best practice’ set of collective redress rules, intended to promote greater consistency in civil and commercial court procedure across Europe, linking to existing European practice and initiatives in the field.

This open access book offers an analytical presentation of how Europe has created its own version of collective actions. In the last three decades, Europe has seen a remarkable proliferation of collective action legislation, making class actions the most successful export product of the American legal scholarship. While its spread has been surrounded by distrust and suspiciousness, today more than half of the EU Member States have introduced collective actions for damages and from those who did, more than half chose, to some extent, the opt-out system.This book demonstrates why collective actions have been felt needed from the perspective of access to justice and effectiveness of law, the European debate and the deep layers of the European reaction and resistance, revealing how the Copernican turn of class actions questions the fundamentals of the European thinking about market and public interest. Using a transsystemic presentation of the European national models, it analyzes the way collective actions were accommodated with the European regulatory environment, the novel and peculiar regulatory questions they had to address and how and why they work differently on this side of the Atlantic.

This book specifically covers issues regarding jurisdiction and the recognition andenforcement of judgments in cross-border mass disputes relating to financial services.Collective redress mechanisms, legal mechanisms which can be used to resolve mass disputescollectively, are growing more important. Due to the global increase in cross-bordertrade and financial transactions, the number of cross-border mass disputes has increased.In the EU, several prototypes of collective redress mechanism exist that can be used toresolve mass disputes and, aside from the EU’s recommendation on the drafting oflaws relating to collective redress, a reevaluation of the Brussels Regulation has alsotaken place as on 10 January 2015 the Brussels I-bis Regulation replaced the old BrusselsRegulation dating from 2000. In spite of a minor reference to collective redress in the Commission proposal, BrusselsI-bis does not contain any provision relating to collective redress. As a result, many questionsregarding cross-border mass disputes and the relevant private international law issues remainunanswered and unresolved. This book sets out to describe the most important prototypesby referring to actual collective redress mechanisms. In addition, it also sets out how parties to such mass disputes can confer jurisdiction to courtsin the EU and what the various pitfalls are. Moreover, the rules concerning the recognitionand enforcement of judgments originating from a collective procedure are listed. Ascross-border collective redress mechanisms and the rules of private international law to beused in such a context are still being developed, the goals of private international law andthe goals of the referred collective redress mechanisms are analysed to provide an insightinto how these sets of rules should and could be employed. This book is primarily aimed at researchers, practitioners and lawmakers actively involvedin and/or professionally interested in the field of private international law and collectiveredress mechanisms and should prove very useful in providing them with a greater in-depthunderstanding of the issues at hand. Thijs Bosters is a law clerk at the Dutch Supreme Court. Prior to his work at the SupremeCourt, he was an attorney-at-law with NautaDutilh in The Netherlands, where he workedin the Litigation & Arbitration department.

The European Commission's Recommendation on Collective Redress (2013/396/EU) establishes a framework to ensure a coherent horizontal approach to collective litigation in the EU context without harmonizing national systems. The Commission clearly aims at distinguishing collective redress in Europe from the North American class action approach. This book explores the need for mass litigation mechanisms in Europe from a series of interdisciplinary perspectives (law and economics, behavioral sciences, and sociological/judicial perspectives). It also analyzes the current collective redress landscape in Europe in light of the Commission Recommendation. This includes: an assessment of national collective redress mechanisms * views from oversees on the present and future of collective litigation in Europe * commentary on various specific areas of collective redress (competition law, product liability, and consumer protection) * the options for and relevance of collective ADR mechanisms. The book is a useful tool for practitioners and academics with an interest in collective redress in Europe and overseas. [Subject: European Law, Consumer Law, Law and Economics, Collective Redress, Class Action, Competition Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution]

Whether with regard to mass torts, civil-rights claims or as a means of private enforcement of antitrust and other regulatory policies: Collective redress of civil claims has been gaining in importance in Europe and worldwide. Long associated with the American model of class actions, an increasing number of EU Member States have made their own attempts at collective redress institutions. At the same time, the amendment of the Brussels I Regulation has shied away from dealing with the cross-border aspects of collective redress. In this book, a worldwide group of distinguished experts in private international law, civil procedure and regulatory law evaluate the problems of cross-border collective redress and provide proposals for a "European way" appropriate for the twenty-first century. This very topical work is, thus, indispensable for practitioners, academics, lobbyists and institutional agents.

'Resolving Mass Disputes is a timely, informative, and stimulating book. the contributed chapters analyze the phenomena of interest - mass dispute resolution in court-based systems and their alternatives - in numerous countries and the EU, and the insights they afford are nicely drawn together in a comprehensive introduction by the editors, Christopher Hodges and Astrid Stadler. As a result, the reader is enabled to understand and begin to evaluate comparatively the various mechanisms by which a broad array of common law and civil law systems currently resolve mass disputes.' - Stephen B. Burbank, University of Pennsylvania Law School, US

Not so long ago, class actions were considered to be a textbook example of American exceptionalism; many of their main features were assumed to be incompatible with the culture of the civil law world. However, the tide is changing; while there are now trends in the USA toward limiting or excluding class actions, notorious cases like Dieselgate are moving more and more European jurisdictions to extend the reach of their judicial collective redress mechanisms. For many new fans of class actions, collective redress has become a Holy Grail of sorts, a miraculous tool that will rejuvenate national systems of civil justice and grant them unprecedented power. Still, while the introduction of various forms of representative action has virtually become a fashion, it is anything but certain that attempting to transplant American-style class action will be successful. European judicial structures and legal culture(s) are fundamentally different, which poses a considerable challenge. This book investigates whether class actions in Europe are indeed a Holy Grail or just another wrong turn in the continuing pursuit of just and effective means of protecting the rights of citizens and businesses. It presents both positive and critical perspectives, supplemented by case studies on the latest collectivization trends in Europe’s national civil justice systems. The book also shares the experiences of some non-European jurisdictions that have developed promising hybrid forms of collective redress, such as Canada, Brazil, China, and South Africa. In closing, a selection of topical international cases that raise interesting issues regarding the effectiveness of class actions in an international context are studied and discussed.