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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

Conference_Programme_2023_(1).pdf (euciviljustice.eu)

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Published: November 22, 2020

The Conference Frontiers in Civil Justice organized by our ERC team on 16-17 November 2020 was a success and - despite having to move online - it was a very lively event. Impressive keynotes were given by speeches by Hazel Genn (UCL) and Hrvoje Grubisic (European Commission). Four great panels with high level, insightful and thought-provoking presentations.

Of course we had hoped to welcome our speakers and adience in Rotterdam or at least have a blended event, but it worked out very well online. Close to 200 people from all over the world had registered, some of whom accompanied us throughout the event; many others picking and choosing the panels and talks they were most interested in. The parallel chat discussions were extensive and very lively, and our chairs supported by chat moderators from our team managed to highlight the key issues that were discussed further in the panel and with ‘live’ questions from the audience.

We are grateful to all the speakers, chairs, tech support and the organizing team (Betül Kas and Ilja Tillema). We are also proud of accomplishing this despite having to work under more challenging circumstances in these strange times, as everyone around the globe.

A brief discussion of the conference presentations has been prepared by Jos and Betül and is available at conflictoflaws.net.

Stay safe and healthy!