The e-Codex Plus project and the ERC project team Building EU Civil Justice of the Erasmus School of Law are jointly organising the conference ‘e’ meets justice: building bridges in cross-border procedures. On 2 and 3 May 2019, academics, IT and legal professionals will meet in Lisbon to discuss how to improve the collaboration between these communities in cross-border civil procedures. The aim of the conference is to offer a platform for different stakeholders to meet, engage in discussions and exchange ideas in order to find a meeting point between the legal world and the digital world, arriving at ‘e-justice’. Focusing on e-CODEX as a potential tool to improve the current situation, participants will be encouraged to propose ideas, engage in discussions and develop a mind-set to foster the future of e-Justice in the EU.
In recent years, cross-border (e-)commerce has increased rapidly. In particular, e-commerce enabled consumers to engage in online transactions with traders from outside their jurisdictions. This development resulted in a growing number of cross-border (online) disputes. While the number of disputes surges, there is a lack of suitable redress mechanisms for consumers, posing challenges to access justice. Consumers encounter obstacles to find a remedy for their cross-border claims, due to differences in language, increased costs, longer procedures, and various diverging legal procedures. It is important that justice embraces technology in order to support online and offline consumers. For a smooth functioning of the Internal Market, it is essential that the consumer has trust and confidence to make (online) cross-border purchases. Therefore, the European Union has been active in creating consumer protection legislation, both in substantive law and more recently in procedural law. Cross-border procedures exist, but their accurate functioning requires that infrastructure must be interlinked and coherent, and should enable more dialogue between stakeholders. In this regard, e-CODEX can be a valuable tool to provide the digital exchange of case related data, connecting parties and courts in a single interface.
Program
Day 1 – Thursday 2 May
09:15 Registration and coffee
09:45 Welcoming remarks
Ernst Steigenga (Ministry of Justice, Netherlands)
Xandra Kramer (Erasmus University Rotterdam & Utrecht University)
10:00
Introductory speech
José de Freitas (President of the CCBE)
10:15
‘The future of e-Justice in the EU’
Hrvoje Grubisic (European Commission, Secretary of the EJN)
10:45
‘Connecting Law and Technology’
Francesco Romeo (University of Naples)
11:15
Coffee Break
11:45
Perspectives on the collaboration between academia, the tech community and practioners regarding cross-border EU procedures
Chair: Jos Hoevenaars (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
Panel: Pablo Cortes (University of Leicester), Cristina Mariottini (Max Planck Institute Luxembourg), Alan Uzelac (University of Zagreb), Marco Mellone (Lawyer of Private International Law), Ewout Boter (e-CODEX and Judicial Information Service, Netherlands)
Digitisation of justice is a growing global trend both in the public and private field. e-CODEX plays a considerable role in the EU digitisation effort, and in particular regarding the European Payment Order and the European Small Claims Procedure. Nevertheless, digitisation through e-CODEX poses difficulties and challenges. Key to all these challenges is the communication between practitioners and academics understanding the importance of cross-border civil procedures and IT specialists who understand the possibilities and requirements of IT as well as the complex EU digital landscape.
12:45 Lunch
14:15 Presentation of Justiça + Próxima
14:45
Insights on the collaboration between academia, IT specialists and practitioners from several Member States
Chair: Xandra Kramer (Erasmus University Rotterdam and Utrecht University)
Panel: Riikka Koulu (Helsinki University), Stefaan Voet (KU Leuven), Emmanuel Jeuland (Sorbonne), Nuno Lemos Jorge (Judge, Portuguese Constitutional Court), Mathias Maurer (e-CODEX and Ministry of Justice, Austria)
Also on the Member States level there is an increased trend visible of the digitization of civil justice. The procedures and initiatives made on the national level may provide insights, inspiration, and recommendations for projects such as e-CODEX. National digital justice projects lead to an easier playing field for initiatives like e-CODEX. This panel will review the national experiences of the UK, Belgium, France, Portugal and Austria concerning the digitization process.
15:45 Coffee break
16:15
Break-out sessions in cooperation with selected partners
The break-out sessions will each highlight a practical issue or a case related to one of the specified areas. A panel consisting of academics and professionals will use their knowledge and experience to discuss these practical cases. Audiences are invited to think along with these professionals on the issues or opportunities presented by these cases and how they may be approached.
- Case 1: ‘A Consumer’s Problem’
Chair: Eva Calvelo (the European Consumer Centre)
Panel speakers: Eva Calvelo (ECC), Pablo Cortes (University of Leicester), Emma van Gelder (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Mathias Maurer (e-CODEX and Ministry of Justice, Austria)
- Case 2: ‘A Lawyer’s Dilemma’
Chair: Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and the European Lawyers’ Foundation (ELF)
Panel speakers: Simone Cuomo (CCBE), Marco Mellone (Lawyer of Private International Law), Eva Storskrubb (Uppsala University), and Ewout Boter (e-CODEX and Judicial Information Service, Netherlands)
- Case 3: ‘A Technical Perspective’
Chair: Jelle van Veenen (Legal Service Designer at Kennedy Van der Laan and Co-founder of Dutch Legal Tech)
Panel speakers: Jelle van Veenen (Legal Service Designer), Erlis Themeli (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Nuno Lemos Jorge (Judge, Portuguese Constitutional Court) and Riikka Koulu (Helsinki University)
17:15 End of the first day
20:00 Conference Dinner
Day 2 – Friday 3 May
09:30 Registration and coffee
10:00 Opening day 2
Xandra Kramer (Erasmus University Rotterdam & Utrecht University)
10:15
‘e-Justice as need for co-operation between lawyers and technicians: A German experience’
Georg Borges (Administration Board of Deutscher EDV-Gerichtstag e.V.)
10:45
‘Access to justice: Challenges for e-Justice’
Eva Storskrubb (Uppsala University)
11:15 Coffee break
11:45 National flavours in the European Payment Order and business rules
Chair: Marco Velicogna (IRSIG)
Panel: Josje Groustra (Ministry of Justice, Netherlands), Huub Moelker (Ministry of Justice, Netherlands), and Ann-Sophie Vandenberghe (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
As e-CODEX contributed to the digitalization of the European Payment Order and the Small Claims Procedure, it encountered more than mere technical challenges. Inherent to the European cross-border procedures is the continuous interplay between the European procedure and aspects thereof that are governed by national laws. This interplay results in different execution of the European procedures across the European Member States. For its users, the European procedures are thus still complex to figure out. e-CODEX investigates in how it can contribute to overcoming this challenge, for example through the use of business rules.
12:45 Lessons learned in the conference and future perspectives
Ernst Steigenga (Ministry of Justice, Netherlands)
Xandra Kramer (Erasmus University Rotterdam and Utrecht University)
13:00 Closing lunch
14:30
Extra session: e-CODEX business model for third party service providers
In the aftermath of the conference, a meeting will take place to discuss the conditions under which third party service providers can use the e-CODEX infrastructure for creating user-friendly services enabling citizen-centered justice for all. In concrete terms, what would the business model for these external service providers look like? The goal of the meeting is to shed a first light on possible criteria for such a model. There are limited spaces available for this meeting.
More information on the programme
To register, please send an email to: aanmelden@minvenj.nl
