Class Actions in Europe: Holy Grail or a Wrong Trail?

397 Pages·2021·4.988 MB·English

by  Alan Uzelac (editor), Stefaan Voet (editor)

Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice 89
Alan Uzelac
Stefaan Voet   Editors
Class
Actions in
Europe
Holy Grail or a Wrong Trail?
Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law
and Justice
Volume 89
SeriesEditors
MortimerSellers,UniversityofBaltimore,Baltimore,MD,USA
JamesMaxeiner,UniversityofBaltimore,Baltimore,MD,USA
EditorialBoardMembers
MyroslavaAntonovych,Kyiv-MohylaAcademy,Kyiv,Ukraine
Nadia de Araújo, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil
JasnaBakšic-Muftic,UniversityofSarajevo,Sarajevo,BosniaandHerzegovina
DavidL.CareyMiller,UniversityofAberdeen,Aberdeen,UK
LoussiaP.MusseFélix,UniversityofBrasilia,FederalDistrict,Brazil
EmanuelGross,UniversityofHaifa,Haifa,Israel
JamesE.HickeyJr.,HofstraUniversity,SouthHempstead,NY,USA
JanKlabbers,UniversityofHelsinki,Helsinki,Finland
Cláudia Lima Marques, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre,
Brazil
AnicetoMasferrer,UniversityofValencia,Valencia,Spain
EricMillard,WestParisUniversity,NanterreCedex,France
GabriëlA.Moens,CurtinUniversity,Perth,Australia
RaulC.Pangalangan,UniversityofthePhilippines,QuezonCity,Philippines
RicardoLeitePinto,LusíadaUniversityofLisbon,Lisboa,Portugal
MizanurRahman,UniversityofDhaka,Dhaka,Bangladesh
KeitaSato,ChuoUniversity,Tokyo,Japan
PoonamSaxena,UniversityofDelhi,NewDelhi,India
GerrySimpson,LondonSchoolofEconomics,London,UK
EduardSomers,UniversityofGhent,Gent,Belgium
XinqiangSun,ShandongUniversity,Shandong,China
TadeuszTomaszewski,WarsawUniversity,Warsaw,Poland
JaapdeZwaan,ErasmusUniversityRotterdam,Rotterdam,TheNetherlands
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(cid:129)
Alan Uzelac Stefaan Voet
Editors
Class Actions in Europe
Holy Grail or a Wrong Trail?
Editors
AlanUzelac StefaanVoet
FacultyofLaw KULeuven
UniversityofZagreb Leuven,Belgium
Zagreb,Croatia
ISSN1534-6781 ISSN2214-9902 (electronic)
IusGentium:ComparativePerspectivesonLawandJustice
ISBN978-3-030-73035-2 ISBN978-3-030-73036-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-73036-9
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Preface
Thisbookaddressesoneofthetopicaltrendsincontemporaryjudicialsystems:the
collectivization of dispute resolution in civil, commercial, and consumer matters.
The contributors to this book were invited to evaluate how various methods of
collective redress function in their social context and to give their assessment on
thedirectionandthedesirabilityofcurrentdevelopments.Theprincipalmotivefor
this book was the apparent switch in the general opinion on collective litigation in
Europe.Whileclassactionsandsimilarcollectiveredressprocedureswereforalong
timedominantlyrejectedas“non-European”andunnecessary,therecentinitiatives
of the European policymakers embraced for the first time a more comprehensive
approachwithrepresentativeactionsthatprovidebothinjunctiveandcompensatory
redress measures. At the same time, the aftermath of some high-profile cases
(e.g. Dieselgate) pointed to the importance of effective judicial processing of
collective harm situations and caused another surge in the interest for European
collectiveredressmechanisms.However,beforeanenthusiasticgeneralacceptance,
a number ofother issues needto beresolved, both inEuropeand inthe rest ofthe
world.
Thecontributionsinthisbookarecollectedfromleadingauthorswhocomenot
onlyfromEuropebutalsofromAsiaandNorthandSouthAmerica.InEurope,the
contributors are covering different legal traditions and geographic locations, from
North and West (Norway, Sweden, UK, Netherlands, and Belgium) to South and
East(France,Italy,andSlovenia).Thecollectedcontributionswereenrichedbyan
exchangeofviewsoftheauthorsthattookplaceinMay2019attheInter-University
Centre Dubrovnik (IUC) within the Public and Private Justice (PPJ) series of
seminars. The editors are grateful to the IUC and its staff, and in particular to
Mr. Tomislav Kvesić, for their continuing support to high-quality, professional,
andacademicdebates.
The original ideas and the first drafts of the chapters in this book date from
pre-COVID-19, but most of the editing and production work happened when the
pandemic was at its peak. While this certainly affected the speed of the process, it
alsodemonstratedthatnew,innovativeapproachestothewaycourtsandjudgesdeal
v
vi Preface
with challenges of mass harm are sorely needed. In this sense, we believe that the
pandemicmadethisbookevenmoreinterestingandtopical.
As editors, we would like to thank a number of people who helped in the
production and editing of the present volume. Our gratitude goes in particular to
Mr. Randolph W. Davidson and Mr. Edward Frisken for their help in revising the
chapters of the non-native English speakers. Dr. Marko Bratković and Mr. Juraj
Brozovićprovidedvaluableeditingassistance.Wealsoexpressourgratitudetothe
Springerteamfortheirpatienceandsupportthathelpedustocontinueandfinalize
ourworkonthisproject.
Zagreb,Croatia AlanUzelac
Leuven,Belgium StefaanVoet
February2021
Contents
PartI Introduction
CollectivizationofEuropeanCivilProcedure:AreWeFinally
Closetoa(Negative)Utopia?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
AlanUzelacandStefaanVoet
PartII CriticalPerspectivesonCollectiveRedress
EvaluatingCollectiveRedress:Models,Evidence,Outcomesand
Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
ChristopherHodges
FortheDefense:28ShadesofEuropeanClassActions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
LindaS.Mullenix
PartIII ManyFacesofCollectiveLitigation:EuropeanPerspectives
TheDawnofCollectiveRedress3.0inFrance?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
MariaJoséAzar-BaudandAlexandreBiard
FromInjunctionandSettlementtoAction:CollectiveRedressand
FundingintheNetherlands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
IanikaN.TzankovaandXandraE.Kramer
ClassActionsinBelgium:EvaluationandtheWayForward. . . . . . . . . 131
StefaanVoet
ClassActionsandGroupLitigation:ANorwegianPerspective. . . . . . . 165
MariaAstrupHjort
GroupActionsinEast-NordicLegalCulture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
LauraErvo
vii
viii Contents
RebootingItalianClassActions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
ElisabettaSilvestri
ChallengesinDraftingandApplyingtheNewSlovenianCollective
ActionsAct. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
AlešGaličandAnaVlahek
TheLessonsofAirfreightCartel:MechanismsofCoordination
ofParallelCollectiveLawsuitsinSeveralJurisdictions?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
JorgSladič
CollectiveRedressintheEU:WillItFinallyComeTrue?. . . . . . . . . . . 287
AlexandreBiardandStefaanVoet
PartIV GlobalPerspectivesonCollectiveRedress
TheStateofReforminFirstandSecondGenerationClass
ActionJurisdictions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
JasminkaKalajdzic
EmpiricalDataandthePowerfulLessonsLearntAboutClass
ActionsinQuebec. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 321
CatherinePiché
CollectiveRedressinBrazil:SuccessorDisappointment?. . . . . . . . . . . 345
HermesZanetiJr
ClassActionsandPublicInterestLitigationinChina. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
YulinFu
Editors and Contributors
About the Editors
Alan Uzelac Professor of Law at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, where he
teaches Civil Procedure and Comparative Civil Procedure, Organization of the
Judiciary and Alternative Dispute Resolution. He is Founding Member of the
European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) in Strasbourg. He is
DelegateintheUNCITRALWorkingGrouponArbitrationandConciliation.Heis
Co-directorofthePublicandPrivateJusticeseminarattheInter-UniversityCentre,
Dubrovnik, Croatia. He is Director of the research project Transformation of Civil
JusticeUndertheInfluenceofGlobalandRegionalIntegrationProcesses.
Stefaan Voet Associate Professor of civil procedure at the University of Leuven
andaHostProfessorattheUniversityofHasselt.HeisProgrammeAffiliateatthe
CMS/Swiss Re Research Programme on Civil Justice Systems at the Centre for
Socio-LegalStudiesattheUniversityofOxford.HeisMemberoftheClassActions
Exchange Network spearheaded by the Universities of Stanford, Oxford, and Til-
burgandaffiliateattheClassActionLaboftheUniversityofMontréal.Heisalsoa
memberofdifferentworkinggroupsoftheEuropeanLawInstitute.
Contributors
MariaAstrupHjort FacultyofLaw,UniversityofOslo,Oslo,Norway
MariaJoséAzar-Baud UniversityofParis-Sud,Paris,France
AlexandreBiard ErasmusUniversityRotterdam,Rotterdam,TheNetherlands
LauraErvo ÖrebroUniversity,Örebro,Sweden
ix