Courts and Procedures: The Changing Roles of the Participants

Abstract

This year's International Association of Procedural Law (“IAPL") conference (the "Conference") focused on the future of categories between and within common law, civil law and mixed procedural traditions. Several factors were discussed at the Conference as potentially responsible for a convergence between (or a partial collapsing of) traditional procedural categories. The changing role or the participants (e.g., witnesses, counsel, judges and parties) within the various procedural traditions, taken together, is one of those factors.

Looking at the two dominant procedural traditions - the civil law and the common law (or, as Thomas Main contemplates: “the Romano- Germanic civil law family and the Anglo-American common jaw family”) - we have certainly seen, for some time, a degree of convergence in both the traditions themselves and the participants' roles within the traditions. Over the past several decades, however, we have experienced modern wave of civil justice reform. As David Balnford puts it, we are in - procedurally speaking - "revolutionary times." This revolution is, in large measure, grounded significantly in principles of efficiency. In response - or, perhaps, leading the charge - roles within the various procedural systems are actively changing. These changing roles are the focus of the papers that made up the combined panels at the Conference.

Keywords: Courts, Procedural Justice, Participation, Civil Justice Reform

JEL Classification: K49, K40