Austerity in Civil Procedure and the Role of Simplified Procedures

The civil justice system has been in a constant flux in the past decades due to changes in society and litigants’ behaviour, as well as the increased factual and legal complexity of cases. The number of cases has been steadily increasing in many countries while the available budget required for more judicial staff, improving judicial case management, digitalisation of processes, and the required specialisation, has not in all instances increased at the same pace. This was worsened as a result of the recent financial crisis that affected many countries around the globe and has prompted governments to cut back on public expenditure. Austerity further challenges the demands of effective justice within a reasonable time,1 as is in the European context notably enshrined in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).2 The financial crisis also led to a decrease in the funding of legal aid by the government in a number of countries, challenging access to justice for more vulnerable litigants in particular. The present issue (8:4) of Erasmus Law Review results from one of the sessions of the XV World Congress of Procedural Law of the International Association of Procedural Law in 2015, dedicated to ‘Effective Judicial Relief and Remedies in an Age of Austerity’.3 It focuses on the role of simplified civil procedures against the background of austerity. The articles included in this issue are fully redrafted versions of a selection of the national reports prepared for the general report for this conference, authored by the present editors.4 Simplified pro-