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The role of the English courts in alternative dispute resolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2018

AKC Koo
AKC Koo*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
*
*Author email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The purpose of this article is to examine the interaction between the court and alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in the legal administration of civil justice. It addresses the following questions. What is the relationship between ADR and the concept of justice? How do we make sense of the anti-ADR views, in particular the serious threat to the rule of law? What role does, and should, the court play in alternative processes? It argues that integrating ADR into the court system broadens the notion of justice and its access, and that, under the rule of law, judges should play a more central role to ensure the use, quality and integrity of alternative processes. This paper extends our understanding of the relationship among justice, ADR and the court from an internal perspective. It also points out the need to expand the case management responsibilities of judges, and their delegates in the Online Court, on ADR.

Keywords

alternative dispute resolutionaccess to justicecivil justice reformcourtrule of law
Type
Research Article
Information
Legal Studies , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , December 2018 , pp. 666 - 683
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Legal Scholars 2018 

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Footnotes

†

The paper has greatly benefited from comment by Dr Andrew Higgins and two anonymous reviewers.

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75 Directive 2013/11/EU on Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes and Amending Regulation (EC) No 2006/2004 and Directive 2009/22/EC (Directive on Consumer ADR) [2013] OJ L165/63.

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152 Arbitration Act 1996, s 32; UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration 1985, Arts 9, 27.

153 Arbitration Act 1996, s 44; UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration 1985, Art 16(3).

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162 Practice Direction – Pre-Action Conduct and Protocols, para 8.

163 Ibid.

164 Halsey, above n 18.

165 CPR 1.4(e); Halsey, above n 18.

166 CPR 3.1(2)(f); Practice Direction – Pre-Action Conduct and Protocols, para 15(b).

167 CPR 1.1(2)(d).

168 CIP Properties (AIPT) Ltd v Galliford Try Infrastructure Ltd [2014] EWHC 3546 (TCC), [2014] 6 Costs LR 1026.

169 Ibid, at [10].

170 Bradley v Heslin [2014] EWHC 3267 (Ch).

171 R v Plymouth City Council [2001] EWCA Civ 1935, [2002] 1 WLR 803.

172 R v East Sussex County Council [2005] EWHC 585 (Admin).

173 CPR 44.2(4).

174 CPR 44.2(5); Practice Direction – Pre-Action Conduct and Protocols, paras 11, 13, 14(c), 15(c), 16.

175 Koo, above n 18; Mobiqa Ltd v Trinity Mobile Ltd [2010] EWHC 253 (Pat); Kayll v Rawlinson (Costs) [2010] EWHC 1789 (Ch); Euroption Strategic Fund Ltd v Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB [2012] EWHC 749 (Comm); Park Promotion Ltd (t/a Pontypool Rugby Football Club) v Welsh Rugby Union Ltd (QBD, 17 July 2012, unreported); Morris v Davies (ChD, 25 July 2012, unreported); Viva! Campaigns Ltd v Scott (Costs) [2013] EWHC 3639 (Ch); Harrison v Madejski [2014] EWCA Civ 361; Northrop Grumman Mission Systems Europe Ltd v BAE Systems (Al Diriyah C4I) Ltd [2014] EWHC 3148 (TCC); Murray v Bernard [2015] EWHC 2395 (Ch); Morris v Htay (County Court (Kingston upon Hull), 2 February 2015, unreported); NJ Rickard Ltd v Holloway [2015] EWCA Civ 1631; Inchbald v Inchbald [2017] EWHC 616 (Ch); Gerrards Cross Leisure Services Ltd v Shizentai Health and Exercise Ltd (County Court (Oxford), 23 January 2017, unreported); Thakkar v Patel [2017] EWCA Civ 117; MacInnes v Gross [2017] EWHC 127 (QB); Primeview Developments Ltd v Ahmed [2017] UKUT 57 (LC); Car Giant Ltd v Hammersmith LBC [2017] EWHC 464 (TCC); Gore v Naheed [2017] EWCA Civ 369.

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178 Koo, above n 18.

179 Civil Justice Council ADR Working Group, above n 23.

180 Ibid, para 2.8.

181 Civil Justice Council ADR Working Group, above n 23, paras 9.27–9.38.

182 Halsey, above n 18, at [17].

183 Ibid.

184 Ibid.

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188 Halsey, above n 18, at [50] (for the appeal of Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust): ‘We accept that the subject-matter of this dispute was not by its nature unsuitable for ADR…’; Thakkar v Patel [2017] EWCA Civ 117 at [27]: ‘The [trial] judge held that this case was suitable for mediation… Those findings were plainly correct. I say that for five reasons: i. The dispute between the parties was a commercial one. It was purely about money…’.

189 Halsey, above n 18, at [78] (for the appeal of Steel v Joy and Halliday): ‘This case raised the question whether Performance Cars is still good law, or whether it could be distinguished. Put like that, the claim against the second defendant, therefore, raised a question of law. In our judgment, the second defendant did not act unreasonably in saying that he (or more realistically his insurers) wanted to have that question resolved by the court. In these circumstances, the nature of the dispute was one which was towards the “intrinsically unsuitable” end of the spectrum. It is a far cry from a typical road traffic claim which raises no disputes of law, and where disputed facts are intrinsically suitable for resolution by ADR’; Harrison v Madejski [2014] EWCA Civ 361 [79]: ‘At least two of the matters stated there were reasonable justifications for the refusal to enter into mediation. One was that the claimant had put in issue the legality of the exclusion of liability provisions in Condition 6.2 and Coys considered that it was important to establish whether or not those provisions were valid and effective’; Gore v Naheed [2017] EWCA Civ 369 [50]: ‘In this case the judge did take it into account but concluded that it was not unreasonable for Mr Gore to have declined to mediate. His solicitor considered that mediation had no realistic prospect of succeeding and would only add to the costs. The judge said that he considered that the case raised quite complex questions of law which made it unsuitable for mediation’.

190 Jackson Preliminary Report, above n 2, ch 36 paras 3.5, 4.1-4.2.

191 Briggs ‘Interim Report’, above n 3, para 6.13.

192 Briggs ‘Interim report’, above n 3, paras 6.7–6.13; Briggs ‘Final report’, above n 3, paras 6.108–6.113, 7.22–7.23; Etherton, above n 62, paras 23, 25.

193 Briggs ‘Final report’, above n 3, paras 7.3–7.5, 7.26–7.34; Etherton, above n 62, para 25.

194 Civil Justice Council ADR Working Group, above n 23, para 2.17.

195 Genn, above n 22, p 75.

196 Lord Neuberger, above n 39, at para 44.

197 Etherton, above n 62, at para 26.

198 Etherton, above n 62, at para 24.

199 Halsey, above n 18, at [21].

200 Lord Justice Jackson ‘Fixed costs – the time has come’ (IPA Annual Lecture, 2016).

201 Ibid, 13.

202 Jackson, above n 200, at 13.

203 CPR 1.1(2).

204 Essar Oilfields Services Ltd v Norscot Rig Management PVT Ltd [2016] EWHC 2361 (Comm), [2016] WLR(D) 576.

205 Ibid, at [68].

206 Neuberger, above n 39.