Transformation of Civil Justice Unity and Diversity

National civil justice systems are deeply rooted in national legal cultures and traditions. However, in the past few decades they have been increasingly influenced by integration processes at the regional, supra-national and international level. As a by-product of the emergence of economic and political unions and globalisation processes there is pressure to harmonise or even unify the way in which national civil justice systems operate. In an attempt to create a ‘genuine area of justice’, new unified procedures are being developed, which operate in parallel with national civil procedures, and sometimes even strive to replace them. As a reaction to the forces that endeavour to harmonise and unify procedural laws and practices, an opposing trend is gaining momentum: one that insists on diversity and pluralism of national civil procedures. This book focuses on the evolution of procedural reforms in various jurisdictions and the ongoing transformation of national civil justice systems.

Chapter 1. The Metamorphoses of Civil Justice and Civil Procedure: The Challenges of New Paradigms – Unity and Diversity.- Part I: Impact of Regional and Global Developments: Cooperation, Borrowing, Transplants ....- Chapter 2. Enforcement by Means of Periodic Penalties (Astreinte) in Slovenia: A Transplant Gone Wild.- Chapter 3. Norwegian Civil Procedure under the Influence of EU Law.- Chapter 4. Judicial Cooperation of the EU in Civil Matters in Its Relations with non-EU States – A Blind Spot?.- Chapter 5. Civil Litigation in Tribunals in South Africa: Creating a Unified Tribunal System.- Part II: Unity and Diversity: Civil Justice Between Modernization and Dejudicialization.- Chapter 6. Informatization of the Civil Justice System in Poland: An Overview of Recent Changes.- Chapter 7. Between Reform and Dejudicialization: Current Trends in Spanish Civil Litigation.- Chapter 8. The Disappearing Trial: Retrenchment of Litigation in North America.- Chapter 9. Private Justice in the Domain of Family Law: The Place of Family Group Conferences within the Range of ADR Methods.- Chapter 10. Reassessing the Essential Role of Public Courts: Learning from the American Experience.- Part III: Global Trends: From Individual to Collective Justice.- Chapter 11. Human Rights Class Actions.- Chapter 12. A New Model of Civil Litigation in Slovenia: Is the Slovenian Judiciary Prepared for the Challenges Presented by the New Law on Collective Actions?.- Chapter 13. A Glance at the Brazilian Collective Redress System.- Chapter 14. ‘Shadow of the Law’ or ‘Shadow of the Settlement’: Experiences with the Dutch Act on Collective Settlement of Mass Damage (WCAM).- Part IV: Access to Justice and Fair Trial Rights.- Chapter 15. Transformation of the Croatian Legal Aid System: From Normative to Functional Insufficiency.- Chapter 16. The Transformation of Consumer Law in Times of Crisis: The Ex Officio Control of Unfair Contract Terms.- Chapter 17. Safeguarding the Right to an Impartial Tribunal by Means of Challenging the Judge.- Part V: Transforming the Apex of the Court Pyramid: The Changing Function of the Highest Courts.- Chapter 18. Roots of the Resistance to the Change in the Supreme Court’s Role.- Chapter 19. Transformation of the Cassation Model in France, the Netherlands and Belgium: Piercing the Legalistic Veil.- Part VI: Historical Transformations.- Chapter 20. Does the New Always Prevail? Parallel Modes of Procedure in the History of Procedural Transformations.- Chapter 21. Historical Uniformity and Diversity of Notaries in the Shadow of their Modern Transformation.

Professor Dr. Alan Uzelac is the Chair (Head) of the Department for Civil Procedure at the Zagreb University Faculty of Law, where he teaches Civil Procedure, Arbitration, ADR, Judiciary, Evidence and Protection of Human Rights in Europe. In addition to his academic activities and numerous publications, Professor Uzelac has been an active member of various international bodies, inter alia as a founding member of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ).