Access to justice in times of technological acceleration. the possible impact of digitalization on judicial debt collection procedures of one-shotters

Abstract

For several decades now, access to justice has been one of the world’s most pressing justice issues, because the realization of law in reality, and in particular the protection of individual rights, can only be safeguarded by the availability of and access to effective judicial remedies. Despite the importance of access to justice, research suggests that there are many unsolved problems with access to justice in jurisdictions around the world. There are various indicators that also in the Netherlands and in Germany there is no full access to justice for all those seeking justice. This is particularly true in civil proceedings and for those who only make occasional use of the legal system (so-called one-shotters). In his dissertation, Vennmanns addresses the access to justice reality of one-shotters before German and Dutch courts. To this end, he uses the available empirical data to identify possible access to justice problems and to explore the reasons for the declining number of civil proceedings before German and Dutch courts. Furthermore, he explores whether the digitalization of civil courts and civil proceedings could be an antidote to possible access to justice problems. This objective relates to a relatively new branch of international access to justice research, which analyses the possible consequences of digitalization on access to justice.