Erik Björling

Project summary

Justice online: alternative dispute resolution for consumer disputes in a digital Europe

For a number of years, the European Commission has actively promoted the use of alternative forms of dispute resolution in European consumer law. The guiding principles are simplicity, proportionality, fairness and effectiveness, and the principal mechanism is Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR).

 

Consumer ADR within the EU takes many different forms, including ombudsmen, mediation bodies and consumer complaints boards. The intention is for these dispute resolution bodies to be accessible online through various types of digital procedures. Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) is a growing phenomenon in Europe that, so far, remains relatively underexplored.

 

The project aims to examine ODR in relation to four areas in which there are significant gaps in legal scholarship: 1) jurisdiction in a digital Europe, 2) technology as a tool for dispute resolution, 3) polycentric dispute resolution, and 4) shifts in the purpose and function of procedural law as a result of ODR.

 

These four areas will be studied from a broad perspective on institutions involved in the administration of justice. In addition to the legal rules governing the procedures themselves, the project will examine the institutional framework and the wider social context in which dispute resolution procedures operate.