Do the Categories Have a Future?
Around the world, there are signs that the traditional categories of civil and common law may be collapsing in the wake of procedural reform spurred by a new range of concerns and aspirations for procedure. In the United Kingdom, the reviews being conducted 10 years after the Woolf Reforms and in Canada, civil procedure rules in British Columbia, Ontario, and the Federal Court are all undergoing major reforms. Reforms in Europe and the United States are also challenging the traditional categories.
These changes give rise to a host of questions, such as:
- Will the age-old categories of common law and civil law continue to be relevant?
- What new categories have emerged?
- How do changes affect the roles of parties, judges, counsel, and witnesses?
- What procedural developments have proven to be effective - regardless of categories?
- How will disputes be resolved in the future?
Common Law, Civil Law and the Future of Categories presents the first comprehensive and structured study of the divide between civil and common law. The essays in this collection were originally presented at the 2009 International Association of Procedural Law conference in Toronto. Each essay tackles a topic significant for litigators and other procedural lawyers in a bijural country, underscoring the important impact this has on Canadian law.
Features and Benefits
- Authors, including leading scholars, academics, and authorities on international law from 35 countries, for a truly global perspective
- Introductory essays for each part of the book, taking a comparative approach to the topic
- In-depth examination of controversial issues that blur the line between categories, including:
- How common law integrates case management reforms to resemble the judge-led procedure in the civil law
- How the increased use of oral hearings in civil law creates similarities to the common law
Essential Reading For
- Canadian and international academics with an interest in conflict of laws, civil procedure, and international and comparative law
- Common law litigators and other procedural lawyers seeking to keep in touch with recent and upcoming developments
- Canadian international law practitioners who require a comprehensive resource on changes in the common law/civil law distinction
Preface
Introduction
I - Rethinking the Common Law/Civil Law Divide -- Contributors: Mirjan Damaŝka, Marcel Storme & Oscar G. Chase
II - Country Studies from Across the Divide -- Contributors: Janet Walker, Linda S. Mullenix, Andres de la Oliva Santos, Samuel P. Baumgartner, Neil H. Andrews, Yasuhei Taniguchi & Murat Ozsunay
III - Changing Roles of the Participants -- Contributors: Garry D. Watson, Trevor C. W. Farrow, Emmanuel Jeuland, David Bamford, The Hon. Justice Ian Binnie, Judith Resnik, Eduardo Oteiza, Soraya Amrani-Mekki & Baosheng Zhang
IV - International Harmonization Projects -- Contributors: Valerie Oosterveld, Eva Storskrubb, Rolf Strner, His Excellency Fausto Pocar
V - Country Studies From Beyond the Divide -- Contributors: Thomas O. Main, Ada Pellegrini Grinover, Kazuo Watanabe, Celia Fassberg, The Hon. Allan Lutfy, Emily McCarthy, Dmitry Maleshin, Pamela Jane Schwikkard, Alan Uzelac, Margaret Woo & Yanmin Cai
VI - Convergence in Other Contexts -- Contributors: Sean Rehaag, Erik S. Knutsen, Burt Neuborne, Richard Marcus, Peter Murray, Edward F. Sherman & Dirdre Dwyer
VII - Cultural Dimensions of Harmonization -- Contributors: Peter Gottwald, H. Patrick Glenn & Michaele Taruffo
VIII - Looking Ahead: The Future of Categories - Categories of the Future -- Contributors: Janet Walker, Loc Cadiet & Geoffrey C. Hazard
Editors: Janet Walker & Oscar G. Chase
Janet Walker, M.A., LL.B., D.Phil. (Oxon), is Professor and former Associate Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. She is the author of LexisNexis Canada’s Castel & Walker – Canadian Conflict of Laws (6th ed., looseleaf), Halsbury’s® Laws of Canada – Conflict of Laws, and co-author of Civil Litigation and General Editor of The Civil Litigation Process (7th ed.). She teaches at Osgoode and has taught as a visitor at Monash, Haifa and the University of Toronto, as a Hauser Global Visiting Professor at New York University and National University of Singapore, as the Leverhulme Professor at Oxford and for the past nine years, as a Foreign Research Professor at Tunis II. She is the common law advisor to the Federal Courts Rules Committee and a member of the Council of the International Association of Procedural Law.
Oscar G. Chase, J.D., is the Russell D. Niles Professor of Law, NYU School of Law; Co-Faculty Director, Institute of Judicial Administration. A graduate of NYU and Yale Law School, Professor Mr. Chase has written on comparative procedure, law and culture, and American civil procedure, recently authoring or co-authoring Law, Culture, and Ritual: Disputing Processes in Cross-Cultural Context, Civil Litigation in Comparative Context, and Civil Litigation in New York (5th ed.). He serves on the Civil Advisory Committee of the Federal District Court, E.D.N.Y., and the Civil Practice Law and Rules Committee of the New York State Bar Association. He is also a member of the American Law Institute and Vice-President of the International Association of Procedural Law.
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