The first Workshop of the Primary Dispute Resolution Project

The topic of the workshop was consumer dispute resolution. The presentations from colleagues from countries across Europe and the fruitful discussions that followed showed great heterogeneity within and among jurisdictions regarding processes, organisation, and regulation of consumer dispute resolution. Another key takeaway was that the processes for resolving these disputes stretch traditional categories for dispute resolution, such as adjudication, arbitration, facilitation, and mediation. Examples of processes offered to disputant involved consumer arbitration, educative and informative processes, and binding advice. The latter is quite an oxymoron! Furthermore, the presentations revealed that the relationship between the court system and the wider civil justice system in these cases is diffuse.
 

Some of the output of the workshop will be published as articles in the International Journal of Procedural Law.  

The organisers from the University of Bergen; Anna Nylund, Magne Strandberg and Camilla Bernt feel privileged to have hosted the workshop, with thought provoking presentations and discussions. They extend their heartfelt thanks to Stefaan Voet (University of Leuven) Lilian Larribère and Etienne Nédellec University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), Bart Krans (University of Leiden), Fernando Gascon Inchausti (University of Madrid), Anna Wallerman (University of Gothenburg) Astrid Stadler (University of Konstanz), and Tanja Domej (University of Zürich) for coming to Bergen and providing invaluable insights.