Primary Dispute Resolution

It is a fundamental prerequisite for a functioning rule of law that legal entities are able to assert their rights and resolve their conflicts. This demands, in addition to high-quality substantive law, access to quality dispute resolution and quality procedural law.

The ordinary court process is often too costly and complex to be a realistic and proportionate dispute resolution method. Therefore, in Norway and many other countries, disputes are often resolved in bodies other than courts or simplified forms of procedure within the courts. Although these forms of dispute resolution are of great practical importance, the knowledge base about them is relatively weak. 

Under the project Primary Dispute Resolution, researchers from the Faculty of Law at the University of Bergen will work together with international colleagues in a network to conduct an exploratory, preliminary investigation of how small and medium-sized legal disputes are resolved. 

The project aim to explore whether it is desirable to use courts more often to resolve such disputes, and how court proceedings should be changed to render them accessible, as well as how alternatives to courts can be improved to be a good and legally sound alternative.

Project plan

The main objective of the project is to bring together different perspectives and strengthen existing and establish new networks in order to advance research on dispute resolution. We will conduct a series of exploratory workshops on access to justice for individuals and small and medium businesses and dispute resolution methods available to them in selected European jurisdictions.

We will also participate in international conferences and seminars, as well as organising guest researcher stays in Bergen, in order to consolidating the research group's position as a leading research environment in civil procedure. The project will thus build a solid academic and institutional platform for future research projects on dispute resolution.