Improving Access to Courts and Access to Justice in Cross-border Litigation:

Lessons from EU Experiences

Abstract

Seeking to guarantee both citizens and companies the possibility to defend and enforce their rights in a Europe of open borders, a number of EU legal instruments have been adopted to support access to justice in cross-border litigation. Several years into their application, key questions remain to be answered. Do these instruments actually facilitate parties’ access to courts and justice? What are the problems encountered in practice and which are the envisaged solutions? What are the reasons why European procedural instruments are rarely used? Through quantitative and qualitative data, the paper explores the legal practitioners’ experience with European instruments, and their perception of the usefulness and usability of these instruments dedicated to cross-border litigation. Furthermore, the analysis seeks to determine whether these instruments succeed in facilitating parties’ access to courts in a transnational setting, and looks into the use of information and communication technology as an additional means contributing to achieving justice.