Research On Swedish Group Litigation

With the rapid development of social production, mass conflict and grouplitigation in response to mass conflict have become the new challenges facedby national laws, different from the traditional civil disputes, grouplitigation often involve the proliferation interests, or collective interests,which have a large number of people with the same or similar demands, and thusa greater impact, and also more complexity.In recent decades, Swedish group litigation system has been highly focusedon, Sweden is the first European country which enacted Group Proceedings Act.This procedure act implemented in January1,2003as European country majorbreakthrough in the group litigation. The Act has the diversity and pragmaticfeatures critically acclaimed.It can be said that the group litigation legislation in Sweden is the effortof western developed countries’group dispute resolution mechanism, and thelegislative and judicial practice also had a greater impact worldwide. TheNordic countries all have developed a national system of group litigation inSweden model. In recent yeas Sweden’s legislation and practice have alsobecome the focus of discussion when forum held in collectivedisputes resolved within Europe. In addition to the Introduction, this articleis divided into five chapters, the main contents are as follow:The first chapter is the development stage of group litigation; thedevelopment stage of group litigation in the European countries; and the diversegroup litigation mechanism development stage in the nineties of the last century.In the third stage, much attention has been given to the Swedish experience,Sweden Group Proceedings Act was formally implemented in2003, but in theSwedish market courts and labour courts group litigation has already existedwithout objection for many years. These provide the basis for Sweden GroupProceedings Act. Sweden Procedure Code was enacted in1948, then after numerous amend still hard to meet the development needs of Swedish society, the problemof people access to justice has aroused widespread.As other countries, Swedenis also very concerned about the class action and other forms of group litigation,and deemed the group litigation is one of the necessary measures to help peopleaccess to justice. In this context, the introduction of class action orsimilar reform measures have been recommended,which ultimately led tothe Group Proceedings Act promulgated and implemented.The second chapter is the main contents and characteristics of the SwedenGroup Proceedings Act. The Act consists of four parts of50articles. The firstpart is the“general”, which made a definition of the concept of group litigation,the type of the group litigation, and trial procedures. The second part is the“how a group litigation is instituted”, which including the provisions of theright to file a group action, elements of the special prerequisite to initiategroup litigation, the definition and status of the group members. The third partis the “follow-up procedures”, which include the content of theplaintiff’s responsibility, the replacement of the plaintiff, the expansion ofthe group litigation. The fourth part is the “special provisions on litigationcosts”. It is noteworthy that the content of the Sweden Group Proceedings Actis only the proceedings of the special procedural requirements, thegroup litigation of civil cases heard by the judicial process requiresapplication of the rules of the Sweden Procedure Code, unless otherwise providedin Group Proceedings Act. In addition, the Group Proceedings Act is not limitedto apply to certain areas of civil law, any litigation involving individuallegal disputes can be filed in the ordinary courts can filed as a group action.The third chapter describes the major factor of the Sweden Group ProceedingsAct and its theoretical basis. Sweden’s system of civil procedure does not createa precedent for a system building, these is no drastic judicial reform.But closeto the reality of conservative judicial tradition also makes the development of Swedish civil procedure can always hold the pulse of society, to keep up withthe needs of the community. Therefore, when most European countries entangledin the mass relief program for the impact of the national economy, Sweden hasenacted Group Proceedings Act. After all, the essence of the Swedish welfarestate must be committed to access to justice, and in the era of Europeanintegration, the EU response to the development of the theory of grouplitigation for damages has also led to the Swedish justice exploration in thisfield. At the same time, the realism legal theory of Sweden, as well as thetheory of access to justice in mass claims have a positive impact to build thegroup litigation system.The forth chapter is the Swedish group litigation practice and developmenttrends. Until November2008, the Sweden Group Proceedings Actimplemented for the six years, the ordinary courts in Sweden (not including thespecial courts) have filed12group actions. By virtue only a few years ofjudicial practice is still difficult for people to make a comprehensive andobjective evaluation, but at least one thing is certain, that is, people worriedabout of legal extortion and litigation wave before the situation does not appear.The Swedish government decided in five years after the implementation of theAct to assess the Act and determine the future reform and development programs.The fifth chapter is the revelation of the Swedish group litigation systemto us. Mass dispute resolution involves not only the design of the legal system,which depends more on a country’s economic and social development, politicalsystem, the judicial authority and functions of the legal profession, as wellas the variety of cultural, only master of these factors in can be possible tofind the ways which suit to their actual conditions. The background and legalculture of the Sweden Group Proceedings Act have a large difference from ourcountry, I do not consent the simple migration of the Swedish legislation, butI believe that the Swedish group litigation legislation has a reference value to us both in the methodological sense and some specific system.