In Volume II of the collection Comparative studies on civil justice reforms, the authors address the experiences of civil judicial reform in Australia and the Canadian province of Quebec. The first volume in the series focused on the experiences of Germany, Spain and Uruguay.
This publication is composed of
four reports. The first is a cross-cutting analysis by JSCA Research and
Projects Director Marco Fandiño entitled “Proportionality and
comprehensiveness of civil justice as foundations for improving access
to justice.” In the article, Fandiño analyzes two topics that have been
very inspiring in the experiences of Australia and Quebec, namely civil
procedure flexibility and its adaptability to the nature of the conflict
and the integration of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). The report
on civil procedure reform in Australia was written by Jill Howieson of
the University of Western Australia. Dr. Howieson focuses on two major
areas of the civil justice system: case management and alternative
dispute resolution. The report on civil procedure reform in Quebec was
authored by Catherine Piché and Pierre Noreau of the University of
Montreal. The authors provide a broad, multidimensional analysis of the
enormous cultural transformation that was ushered in by the Civil
Procedure Code that was introduced in 2014.
Finally, the publication includes a
Spanish translation of Quebec’s 2014 Civil Procedure Code, which is
especially motivating for JSCA for several reasons. First, it addresses
access to justice as an absolute priority of the reform process. Second,
it comprehensively and systematically regulates ADR, thus considerably
furthering its use.
The code is also very respectful of
the procedural powers of the parties within the context of an
adversarial process. Finally, it encourages judges to play an active
role in the process through case management, which helps to improve
efficiency through the flexibility of the judicial process.
JSCA Research and Projects Director
Marco Fandiño observed, “This work is very enriching because the
experiences of Australia and Quebec have been very valuable in the
consolidation of a civil procedure model that can be used to promote
civil justice reforms in Latin America. JSCA highly values the
adversarial criminal justice consolidation in all of the Spanish
speaking countries of the region and the removal of the inquisitorial
paradigm. We believe that there is a need to strengthen the idea of a
mixed adversarial civil process that addresses the profound changes that
this procedure model has undergone, particularly in common law
countries. We welcome the arrival of this new adversarial civil
procedure mitigated by logics of collaborative analyses that can be used
to promote civil procedure reforms in every country in the region.”