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Sustaining Access to Justice in Europe: New Avenues for Costs and Funding

The team of the NWO Vici project ‘Affordable Access to Justice’ at Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University (Rotterdam), is organising the conference ‘Sustaining Access to Justice in Europe: New Avenues for Costs and Funding’ on 19 and 20 October 2023 at the Erasmus Paviljoen at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Access to civil justice is of paramount importance for enforcing citizens’ rights. At the heart of access to civil justice lies litigation funding and cost management. Yet, over the past decades, access to justice has been increasingly put under pressure due to retrenching governments, high costs of procedure, and the inefficiency of courts and justice systems. Within this context, the funding of litigation in Europe seems to be shifting from public to private sources. Private actors and innovative business models emerged to provide new solutions to the old problem of financial barriers of access to justice.

With the participation of policymakers, practitioners, academics, and civil society representatives from all over Europe and beyond, the conference seeks to delve deeper into the financial implications of access to justice and the different ways to achieve sustainable civil justice systems in Europe.

The topics addressed in this international academic conference will include the different methods of financing dispute resolution, particularly in the context of group litigation (third-party funding, crowdfunding, blockchain technologies), public interest litigation, developments in ADR/ODR, the new business models of legal professionals as well as law and economics aspects on litigation funding. The conference is supported by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

Find the link to registration here.

Please find the preliminary conference programme below.

Call for papers Vici Conference Sustainable justice 2023.pdf

Provisional Programme.pdf

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Published: June 17, 2022

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)