Abstract
This chapter provides an overview of Europe’s justice systems and introduces the consumer ADR directive and the regulation on ODR—these form the basis of the fundamental, EU-wide change to the informal dispute resolution landscape. It includes an outline of what the implementation of these new rules into national (UK and Germany) ADR infrastructure means for the justice systems. The implementation into national frameworks signifies different things in different jurisdictions and needs to be disentangled. I argue that, for the legitimacy of the new legislative framework for ADR/ODR to be accepted, it needs to be understood in a national context and through its relationship with the formal legal system.
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For a detailed comparison of the various distinctions between these systems, see Head (2011).
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For the sake of completeness, I briefly outline the criminal justice system:
The criminal justice system is made up of a number of agencies, each responsible to a government department. These agencies typically are: legislative (law-making), police (law enforcement), adjudicative (courts) and corrective (prisons, probation, parole) (Dammer and Albanese 2010). The criminal legal system’s aim is to punish wrongdoers for offences against society as a whole. If criminal justice is seen as a form of governance, its role involves imposing social order and acting as a mechanism for resolving disputes; it is also a technique for managing risk (Zedner 2004: 2). This system, like other systems, is built around a set of values and principles. The term ‘criminal justice system’ is also commonly used descriptively to refer to all those agents, institutions and practices entrusted with responding to crime. Broadly speaking, it concerns the relationships between the individual, the citizen and the state. The criminal justice system can be described as a ‘dedicated form of justice that applies in relation to criminal cases as opposed to civil, family, or administrative matters – and that has its own laws, principles, rules, procedures, codes, practices and thinking’ (Gibson and Cavadino 2008: 9).
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Woolf Reforms and the Civil Procedure Rules 1998. Accessed 15 November 2017. https://www.insolvencydirect.bis.gov.uk/technicalmanual/Ch13-24/Chapter19/part2/part_2.htm.
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Not to mention the whole process of tribunalisation in the early twentieth century.
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See, for example, the annual reports of the various ombudsmen for more details and figures.
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European Commission, ‘Special Eurobarometer 342: Consumer Empowerment’ (2011): http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_342_en.pdf.
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Directive 2013/11/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes, amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 and Directive 2009/22/EC (Directive on Consumer ADR) [2013] OJ L165/63; Regulation (EU) No 524/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2013 on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes and amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 and Directive 2009/22/EC (Regulation on consumer ODR) [2013] OJ L165/1.
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Commission Recommendation 98/257/EC of 30 March 1998 on the principles applicable to the bodies responsible for out-of-court settlement of consumer disputes. Commission Recommendation 2001/310/EC of 4 April 2001 on the principles for out-of-court bodies involved in the consensual resolution of consumer disputes [2001] OJ L 109/56.
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Directive 2008/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters [2008] OJ L 136/3.
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The year 2015 marked 10 years since the European Commission, together with national governments, established a network of European Consumer Centres (ECC) in all 28 member states of the European Union, Norway and Iceland (the ECC-Net). The ECC-Net promotes the understanding of EU consumers’ rights and assists in resolving complaints about purchases made in another country of the network, when travelling or shopping online. ‘European Consumer Centres’ (European Commission: Consumers, 2015): http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/solving_consumer_disputes/non-judicial_redress/ecc-net/index_en.htm; ‘Welcome to FIN-NET’ (Financial Dispute Resolution Network): http://ec.europa.eu/finance/fin-net/index_en.htm.
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See the ODR platform: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/odr/main/index.cfm?event=main.home.show&lng=EN.
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Claims of up to £10,000 are put in the small claims track; claims of £10,000–25,000 are usually put in the fast track; claims over £25,000 are put in the multi-track.
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European Commission (Special Eurobarometer 342) consumer empowerment; available at: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/consumer_empowerment/docs/report_eurobarometer_342_en.pdf.
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Regulated sectors: financial services, energy, legal services, aviation, rail, postal services and water. Unregulated sectors: second-hand cars, retail, property, travel and estate agents.
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For example: claims management firms, more than one ADR provider serving the same sector, and crossover in ombudsmen jurisdictions and responsibilities between sectors.
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I will return to this in Chapter 6 when disentangling the relationship people have with the justice system.
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Creutzfeldt, N. (2018). Europe’s Justice Systems. In: Ombudsmen and ADR. Palgrave Socio-Legal Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78807-4_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78807-4_2
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