1 Future Perspective on
Collective Litigation[1]
1.1 General
Remarks
- In these concluding remarks, we embark on the future of collective
litigation: class actions and aggregate litigation tools. Based on the reflections
that were made in the previous chapters, we look into the future. Although these reflections are meant
to be global, a closer look is taken at the situation in Brazil and Latin America.
- Tools of collective litigation are being created in an increasing
number of jurisdictions. It is interesting to notice that, in the last two decades, the number of
countries that have adopted representative litigation by private actors has multiplied and there does
not seem to be any reason for this to change in the near future.[2]
- Changes in the world, such as the growth of industrial societies,
causing injury to a large number of individuals, or changes in the law such as the creation of new
rights (eg, fundamental rights), have led to this development.
- At this point, one should recall that the terminology here adopted
is collective litigation, a genre encompassing
representative class actions (American model), and forms of aggregate litigation (such as the German
Musterverfahren).
1.2 Class Actions and
Aggregate Litigation Tools
- Class actions, and collective litigation in general, have the
potential to generate social, economic and political changes. This potential, as we will see, is getting
much more visible in the last decades.
- The importance of class actions is growing for two main reasons.
The first being that the potential of causing harm or injury is ever greater, increasingly affecting
communities worldwide. Secondly, a new generation of rights can be perceived, such as all the rights
connected to technology, data protection, artificial intelligence, ie, rights that are not
adequately and efficiently protected by traditional civil procedural tools.
- Since there are several concerns, referred to in the previous
chapters, mainly in the introductory chapter, over class actions, some jurisdictions prefer aggregative
methods. These permit judges to deal individually with the claims but bundle them for reasons of
efficiency.
- As mentioned in Chapter 4, there are several models of aggregative
litigation tools: group litigation order, the German capital markets model proceeding, the United States
multidistrict litigation procedure and others.
- In order to accept aggregate litigation tools at a theoretical
level, we do not need to abandon the underlying fundamental principles of civil procedure,
concerning individual suits, mainly those related to standing and res
judicata.[3] There are fewer due process concerns because
those who are affected by the decision have the opportunity to participate in person, although such
participation may be limited until a settlement is offered (when such occurs) when each litigant must
agree to release their claim in exchange for compensation
- By contrast, in a class action, the fundamental principles of civil
procedure, all of them related to individual suits, have to be abandoned and concepts of res judicata and standing must be revisited. It is a new world.
- It is important to underline that a significant number of
jurisdictions have both mechanisms: representative class actions and aggregative procedures. Both of
them can address mass claims.
1.3 New Role of Class
Actions
- In any case, it seems to me that we can already perceive an outline
of what the future holds for the role that will be played by collective litigation, mainly by class
actions. Aggregate litigation tools will continue to solve consumer disputes and similar ones, but class
actions are bound to play a really important role, in their representative model.
- In my opinion, an important aspect of the future
prospects of collective litigation is the rise of its strategic[4] use. Strategic
litigation may be structural[5] or regulatory[6].
- Strategic litigation is not limited to
class actions or to any tool of collective litigation. An individual lawsuit could also play this role.
Naturally, there is a greater probability that individual lawsuits will play that strategic role when
there are innumerable similar claims against the same defendant, or even when they are brought together
through aggregate litigation tools.
- Nevertheless, it is natural that class actions play this role more
frequently than individual ones.[7] Strategic litigation commonly involves climate
change, fundamental rights, etc: rights that are more efficiently protected by class actions.[8] Another reason is that
the court’s decision, even if it is not the case of these intrinsically collective rights, always
involves a group of people who, broadly speaking, find themselves in the same situation (in the
situation involving individual homogeneous rights referred to in the Introductory Chapter, para
59).
- A lawsuit may play a strategic role when the plaintiff aims to achieve more than a favourable
award. Actions with a strategic role may have either structural or regulatory
aims. In both cases, political, social or legal changes may be produced.
- When a lawsuit deals with complex cases, normally involving matters
of public interest, such as for example overcrowded prisons, it may play a structural role.
- It is impossible to solve the overcrowding problem of prisons
without giving rise to some structural changes. It is, indeed, a complex and difficult issue that
involves a matter of public interest and that cannot be solved unless a more far-reaching and structural
award is given that transcends the interests of the individuals involved.
- Class actions, when used in a regulatory role, have redundancy as one of their most visible characteristics, acting
as a backup system when the regulatory regime fails.[9]
- The need for regulation in complex societies is intensive. The
degree of technological and scientific development gives rise, as a natural consequence, to new
risks.[10] Risk is inherent to our industrial society.
These risks have to be regulated, otherwise they can
result in irreversible damage.[11]
- Furthermore, a heightened awareness of the duties of governments
leads to the need for regulation of matters such as
health care, education, food, etc.[12] Sometimes this regulation is achieved as an
effect of the regulatory consequences of class actions.
- Strategic lawsuits are able to influence the atmosphere to create
new statutes.[13] Class actions, when playing a structural role, can be filed with the deliberate aim of
leading to deeper changes in the legal sphere, even aiming to bring about changes in
statutes.[14]–
[15]
- Usually, activists and NGOs use class actions in a strategic way.
Initially, NGOs were just groups of people with similar interests, but nowadays there is a trend for
them to become increasingly professional.[16]
- Strategic lawsuits, normally but not exclusively brought under the
form of class actions, are bound to achieve a specific goal and serve a particular cause, such as those
related to societal change (eg, climate change) that goes beyond a favourable award.[17]
- The main distinction between ‘normal’ and strategic
litigation is that, as a rule, strategic litigation is ‘forward looking’, while
‘normal’ litigation, usually between private parties, is retrospective as it takes into
consideration the preexisting law, the facts that took place, how they happened etc to solve a
past dispute.[18]
- A good example of strategic litigation can be found in Costa Rica
where the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice ruled on the right to health care. Many
actions refer to the health system’s ‘unwillingness’ to respond to the AIDS epidemic
in the 1990s. The government’s argument was always that the medication did not truly cure people,
but was a mere palliative, and was furthermore very expensive.[19]
- The case law of the Indian Supreme Court is highly relevant with
regard to social rights. It is one of the most powerful constitutional courts in the world.[20] As we have seen in the
introductory chapter, India has PIL (Public Interest Litigation) and SAL (Social Action Litigation),
which are powerful instruments that ensure that the actions granted have a significant horizontal and
vertical effect and have an impact on many of the country’s internal structures.[21]
- The South African Constitutional Court has provided
examples of actions in which the outcomes have had a significant impact on the country’s internal
structures such as, for example, Meaningful Engagement in 2008. GrootBoom[22] is one of the most
important cases heard by the Constitutional Court, in which the right to housing for poor people was
discussed.
- In Argentina, one of the most prominent class
actions was filed by a group of residents affected by the high levels of pollution of the Matanza-Riachuelo River, a tributary of the La Plata River. It led to
a decision determining that the government should prepare a restructuring
plan to combat pollution and also submit follow-up reports on its
compliance with the ruling. [23]
- The same strategic structural use can be seen in the Brumadinho[24] case in Brazil. The bursting of the dam gave rise to this enormous tragedy:
Brumadinho, 25 January 2019. 270 people were killed, and
millions of cubic metres of mining waste were dumped into the Rio Paraopeba basin. The defendants are
Vale do Rio Doce and the company German TÜV Süd. Crimes were committed against nature, both fauna
and flora, in addition to culpable homicides, since it was shown that Vale was aware of the inadequacy of the safety levels of the
tailings dam. The river water is still not fit for consumption and fishing is still not allowed. This
disaster gave rise to a huge number of individual lawsuits, class actions and class action settlements.
These settlements went far beyond what was
claimed in the original claims.
- The agreement reached in the Brumadinho case included (2019) for example: i) the professional
training of young people and adults; ii) the creation and promotion of entities that support women who
are victims of domestic violence, as well as alcohol and drug addiction; iii) the construction of
‘biofactories’ for the reproduction of pollinating insects, which are beneficial to
agriculture; iv) legal advisory services for the legalisation of urban land ownership; v) the
construction of multi-sports courts and skateboard tracks; vi) public policies for the prevention of
crime.[25]
- It is striking that the settlement involves much more than just
compensating the losses caused, encompassing measures that aim to really restructure the region that was totally destroyed by the accident.
Society seems to be satisfied with the results of this very broad settlement reached during the
proceedings.
- The regulatory effect of litigation may be the direct result of the
judicial decision but may also stem from the voluntary conduct of the defendants. In fact, it was
already stressed in the introductory chapter that class actions (aggregate litigation tools, as well as
other types of lawsuits) may cause changes in behaviour.
- The fact that a company gets an adverse judgment may have an impact
on the conduct of other companies. This may have been predicted by the judge and by the plaintiff. In
both cases, it seems to me that the regulatory effect is clear.[26]
- Although disputes between individuals are not usually perceived as
being capable of generating regulatory effects, in fact, these actions may play an important role in
filling the gaps where the state has failed to
act.[27] Arie
Freiberg cites actions dealing with the harm caused by tobacco, alcohol, firearms, asbestos and silicone
implants. In such cases, says the author, actions had compensatory, punitive and deterrent goals, and
even regulatory ones, bringing about changes in behaviour. According to Freiberg, ‘Class actions
are a hybrid of public and private action purposes’.[28]
- It is important to stress that even if countries tend to have the
same problems – as a result of globalization – which could theoretically lead to the
creation of similar legal tools to solve them, this does not necessarily happen.
- In the US, many cases that gave rise to strategic litigation either
did not directly involve class actions or class actions played a minimal role in these situations. As
precedents are binding there are public nuisance actions[29] and other judicial means that can be used
strategically or, more specifically, with regulatory effects.
- Nevertheless, in Brazil, most of these conflicts
cited as strategic litigation would have been the subject matter of class actions, normally filed
by Ministério Público (the
Public Prosecutor’s Office) or other official bodies.
- This is what happened with the tobacco issue: a
class action was filed in 2019 against Souza Cruz Ltda, British and American
Tobacco PLC, Philip Morris (Brazil and International) where a claim was
made to compensate the government for expenses incurred with the treatment of various types of cancer,
tuberculosis, pneumonia etc, either caused or aggravated by the consumption of cigarettes or by exposure
to cigarette smoke. The claim included a request for collective moral damages.
- This class action led to the issuing of Decree
263/2019, which established a task force to discuss the taxation of cigarettes.
- The strategic use of lawsuits, with regulatory effects, is quite
perceptible in the US. A good example is the case of firearms. Several lawsuits were brought by local
governments against the gun industry, having as grounds the huge losses generated by violence that was
borne neither by the buyers of firearms nor by those who manufactured them.
- The doubt that arose was: who must bear the costs of violence? A
large portion of these costs arose from the negligence of the industry with regard to the sale of guns.
A number of actions were filed and gave rise to stricter regulation of the purchase of firearms. It is
deemed that the main aim of the lawsuits filed against the firearm industry was to bring about
regulatory changes and not to obtain financial compensation for the costs of violence. However, it was
precisely the threat of the latter sanctions – the expectation that they would occur – that
brought about changes in the legislation.
- These lawsuits also had an impact on the design of these firearms:
child-proof triggers, mechanisms that show if the gun is loaded or a sensor that allows it to be used
only by its owner.
- According to Cook and Ludwig, the actions filed against the gun
industry claimed that there was negligence in its marketing practices, the design of its products, or
both.[30]
- In Brazil, if this dispute were to be solved before the courts, it
would be a case for a class action.
- Among the International Tribunals, the decisions of the European
Court of Human Rights stand out, with regard to strategic claims. One of the most well-known decisions
is the Torreggiane et al v Italy[31] case, in which the existence of
human rights violations in the Italian prison system was ascertained, among them, the overcrowding of
cells, inadequate lighting and water heating systems. The government was ordered to implement reforms to
rectify these issues.
- This use or effect of class actions raises the
question of whether courts are the right forum for these matters to be resolved. This is easier to
answer when it comes to solving international problems before International Courts, as in the example of
the last paragraph. However, when it comes to local problems, issues regarding the separation of powers
could arise, which remains a delicate question.[32]
2 The
Future of Collective Litigation in Europe: Vibrant, Challenging and Fascinating?[33]
- In an article published in 2016, Professor Klonoff ventured a
prediction on the future of American class actions. He wrote:
[T]he climate for class actions will remain difficult for plaintiffs. At the same
time, large and significant class actions will continue to be brought and certified, and trials will become
even more common. Vigorous ethical attacks on attorneys will continue (and in some cases succeed), with the
salutary result that unethical tactics will be deterred. Technology will make the class action device more
transparent and democratic, so that unnamed class members will be able to play an active part in the
process. In short, class actions will remain vibrant, challenging, and fascinating.[34]
- Whether this prediction has come true is an evaluation best left to
the American legal community. For a European scholar, it may be interesting to question the possibility
of offering the same prediction regarding group actions on this side of the Atlantic. In other words: is
it sound and realistic to state that in the years to come collective redress in Europe, no matter how it
is named and in spite of the different procedural mechanisms adopted to make it effective, will remain
vibrant, challenging, and fascinating?
- This author believes that at the theoretical level, the subject of
collective redress at large will continue to stimulate an extensive array of studies and commentaries.
At a practical level, the success of collective redress will depend on a variety of factors, among which
the specific features and, most of all, the peculiar problems of each European legal system are bound to
play a role of paramount importance. This is to say that it appears extremely unlikely that group
actions will take off as viable tools for the protection of the rights and interests shared by a large
number of individuals in countries facing a serious crisis of the justice system. Even the efforts of
the EU institutions to harmonize the patchwork of rules and regulations adopted by Member States in the
field of collective redress are bound to fail insofar as the implementation of EU regulations only adds
a further layer of complication to a legislative landscape that is already confused and incoherent. This
is certainly the case in Italy (this author’s country). The complexity of the procedure governing
the general class action according to the Code of Civil Procedure, combined with a questionable
implementation of the Representative Actions Directive (RAD), and in conjunction with the lack of any
attempts at coordinating the two sets of rules, are the source of doubts and uncertainties regarding
which procedural tool may be best suited to bring to court collective claims. The risk of parallel
actions arising out of the same events is always looming, and the problem of funding the costs of group
actions remains unsolved, just to mention two of the multiple issues brought about by the applicable
laws. All of this must be assessed against the background of an extensive reform of civil procedure in
force since 2023 and at present (May 2024) on the verge of being amended anew and keeping in mind the
well-known and apparently irreversible excessive delay of Italian civil proceedings.
- If the development of collective redress in Italy
seems challenging, but far from vibrant and fascinating, on a worldwide scale this author sees a panoply
of areas in which group actions could gain momentum, such as the many claims falling within the
perimeter of what is conventionally named public law litigation. This is the development this author
looks forward to, nurturing the hope that collective redress can become in the future a powerful tool
aimed at fostering social justice.
3 The View from the United
States[35]
- Although the history of collective litigation – what we now
term class actions – dates back at least to medieval England, recent scholarship and public policy
debate tend to treat the United States’ Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 as the ur class action
procedure. Migrating from England to the early English colonies and enshrined in federal equitable
procedure after independence, Rule 23 was incorporated in the transformative 1938 Federal Rules of Civil
Procedure that erased the division between equity and law. The 1938 version of the class action rule
required plaintiffs to master complex technical requirements, which often defeated their attempts to
proceed collectively. Nonetheless, the 1938 rule was used successfully by shareholders to bring suits
claiming violations of federal security laws. In contrast, post-World War II efforts by civil rights
advocates to use Rule 23 to challenge segregationist policies were often thwarted by federal judges in
southern states holding that the rule was improperly applied. According to many accounts, frustration
with these decisions led to the successful effort to amend and simplify Federal Rule 23 in 1966. As is
typical in the United States, many states thereafter amended their own class action rules to emulate the
1966 version of the federal rule.
- Adopted about the same time as Congress enacted a panoply of public
laws granting new private rights of action to protect consumers, employees, and community members from a
wide range of harms, Rule 23 became the engine to achieve socially progressive goals. Predictably,
corporate representatives decried the increase in legal claimants’ ability to hold businesses
accountable for legal violations. At the same time, conservative interests challenged the advisability
of delegating to courts policy decisions regarding issues as diverse as prisoner rights, welfare
recipient rights, and school children’s rights. Over time, federal case law trimmed back some of
the more expansive uses of Rule 23 and political controversy over class actions died down as legal
advocates turned their attention to matters of substantive law.
- Starting in the 1980s and picking up steam in the 1990s,
controversy over class actions reignited, arguably as plaintiff law firms became more expert in wielding
the power of Rule 23 to bring shareholder and antitrust class actions, civil rights class actions on
behalf of employees and litigation under new consumer protection statutes. The US Supreme Court began
giving more attention to the implementation of Rule 23 and upheld efforts by large corporations to evade
class actions by imposing mandatory pre-dispute arbitration agreements that precluded any sort of
collective action on employees and consumers. Although in the immediate aftermath of the 1966 adoption
of the modern class action rule, some judges looked kindly on class actions, an activist US Supreme
Court’s more conservative positions on the application of Rule 23 limited the scope of the rule
and heightened the requirements for using it. Ironically, just as jurisdictions around the world began
adopting collective litigation procedures, US federal and state courts severely restricted the use of
class actions. While lobbyists in other jurisdictions continued to warn against the excesses of
American-style class actions, it became increasingly
difficult – and considerably more expensive – for plaintiffs to prevail in class action
litigation in the United States.
- Because statistics on class action litigation are woefully lacking
it is impossible to quantify the effects of court-imposed restrictions on the application of Rule 23.
Scholarship on mandatory arbitration suggests that many employment disputes have been shifted out of
court and recent US Supreme Court decisions have heightened requirements for bringing consumer
protection class actions. Mass claims are now litigated in aggregative form under the federal
Multi-District Litigation (MDL) statute, ironically presenting some of the same perceived conflicts of
interest that critics feared regarding class actions in a context that formally allows for less judicial
oversight. In sum, rather than running amok, class actions in the United States have been increasingly
reined in, to the satisfaction of some critics and the concern of those who have looked to collective
litigation to mitigate some of the harms of the free market.
- Against this background, it would be difficult to
argue that the future of class actions in the United States is bright. However, experience suggests that
the pendulum will eventually swing back in a more favourable direction for class actions, producing more
balance in the application of Rule 23. Political opposition to the imposition of arbitration mandates on
sexual harassment disputes led in 2023 to Congressional amendment of the Federal Arbitration Act to deem
unenforceable forced arbitration of these disputes, opening the door to certain employment class actions
again. (Importantly, the amendment continues to support consensual decisions to arbitrate rather than
litigate such disputes.) Off the record, some corporate counsel now murmur that the judicial oversight
required for class actions offered their companies more protection against frivolous claims and
self-dealing plaintiff counsel than the multi-district litigation model that plaintiffs were driven to
by the Supreme Court’s disallowance of mass personal injury class actions. A corporate defence
effort to gain the useful consequences of class actions for mass claims by substituting bankruptcy
proceedings is running up against legal obstacles. The success of the class action procedure in
resolving consumer protection litigation against Volkswagen and (more controversially) American football
players’ personal injury litigation against the National Football League suggests that the class
action procedure can be useful for plaintiffs and defendants alike in the right circumstances and when
closely monitored by judges of courts of first instant. And notwithstanding the barriers that the US
Supreme Court has erected to pursuing class actions, plaintiffs continue to prevail in some shareholder,
antitrust, and consumer class actions, and climate change litigation. Never as powerful a tool for
plaintiffs as critics assert nor as beaten down as high court decisions imply class actions in the
United States are likely to play a significant role in regulating market behaviour on into the
future.
4 An African
Perspective[36]
- Class actions on the African continent remain
largely underdeveloped and underutilised. For instance, Nigeria’s class action is criticised
because of its limited scope.[37] In South Africa, in the 30 years since the
class action has been introduced into South African law, there have only been 21 certification
decisions.[38]
- There are various reasons for the underutilisation of the class
action in South Africa. Many of these also apply to other African jurisdictions. The failure by the
South African legislature to regulate the mechanism has resulted in the mechanism being viewed, and
used, with caution. It has been left to the courts to develop the procedural framework within which
class actions operate.[39] This has resulted in conflicting approaches by South African superior courts, for
example, in relation to the issue of whether it is necessary to certify Bill of Rights class
actions.[40] Furthermore, one of the reasons for the relatively low certification rate in South
Africa is because of the stringent approach adopted by the courts in determining whether there is a
triable cause of action. Only 10 of the 21 South African certification judgments resulted in
certification of the class action.[41] Of the 11 class actions in which certification
was refused, half of those cases entailed refusal of certification for reasons related to the
applicants’ cause of action.[42]
- There simply aren’t enough lawyers who are willing and able
to litigate class actions. There are at most a handful of lawyers in South Africa who specialize in
class action litigation. Furthermore, although litigation funding is likely to become a key feature of
the South African civil litigation landscape in future, it is not currently the case. It is trite that
the absence of litigation funding can impact the number of class actions instituted annually.[43]
- Another reason for the underutilization of class action is a lack
of education and empowerment of South African citizens, especially the impoverished, regarding class
actions. More than half (30-odd million people) of the South African population live in poverty under
the national upper poverty line of R1 558.[44] Given
that class action is often used where classes comprise members from the
poorest portions of our society, and taking into account that the primary aim of class proceedings is to
facilitate access to justice,[45] the lack of education and empowerment of South
Africans have certainly also played a role in limiting the number of class actions instituted to
date.
- A further reason for underutilization of the class action, and
perhaps the most disconcerting, is South Africans’ slowly eroding trust in the South African
judiciary and the judicial system. Distrust in the judiciary can undermine
confidence in the fairness and efficacy of the legal system, leading to the underutilization of
mechanisms such as class actions for addressing systemic grievances and seeking redress for collective
harm. Addressing this distrust requires efforts to enhance transparency, accountability, and public
confidence in the judiciary's integrity and independence.
- A detailed legislative class action framework is an essential step
towards the increased utilization of class action. The recent promulgation through the South African
Rules Board of Courts of Law of new High Court rules regulating certification will hopefully contribute
to promoting legal certainty insofar as the utilization of the mechanism is concerned. Ultimately, the
new rules will make it easier to file and maintain class action whilst ensuring safeguards against
abuse. Furthermore, there needs to be increasing legal education and awareness regarding class action.
It is important to raise awareness among individuals, lawyers, and advocacy groups about the potential
benefits of class actions in addressing certain types of legal issues and to educate the public about
their rights and the availability of class actions as a tool for seeking redress. When individuals are
informed about their rights, they are more likely to recognize instances where a collective action, such
as a class action, may be warranted. Empowered communities are more likely to come together to address
common grievances and seek legal remedies collectively. This can lead to an increase in the number of
potential class actions as communities recognize the strength in numbers. Legal empowerment initiatives
may also work to reduce barriers that prevent individuals from pursuing legal action. This includes
addressing issues such as financial constraints, lack of legal representation, and procedural
complexities. By making legal avenues more accessible, individuals and groups are more likely to pursue
class actions when faced with systemic injustices. Legal empowerment efforts can also foster
collaboration between empowered communities and legal aid organizations. These organizations may provide
the necessary resources, expertise, and support to pursue class actions on behalf of marginalized or
vulnerable groups.
- The availability of litigation funding is a key factor in ensuring
that class actions can effectively serve as a mechanism for addressing widespread legal grievances and
promoting access to justice. There also needs need to be a more aggressive leveraging of technology to
improve communication with potential class members and enhance the administration of class actions,
making the process more accessible and transparent.
- It is evident that a transformative shift towards the enhanced
utilization of class actions is not only desirable but imperative. The potential for collective legal
actions to address systemic injustices, to protect the rights of marginalized individuals, and to
promote accountability cannot be overstated. Embracing the power of collective unity in the pursuit of
justice will undoubtedly strengthen African legal systems and contribute to a more equitable society. As
we embark on this journey, we should champion the cause of collective empowerment through class actions
on the African continent, recognizing their capacity to redress imbalances and pave the way for a more
just and inclusive future for all citizens. Hopefully, it will assist in propelling Africa into an era
where justice is not merely an illusory concept, but a lived reality for every member of our diverse and
vibrant society.
Abbreviations and
Acronyms
AIDS
|
Acquired Immune Defriciency Syndrome
|
Art
|
Article
|
ch
|
chapter
|
ed
|
editor/editors
|
edn
|
edition/editions
|
eg
|
exempli gratia (for example)
|
et al
|
and other people
|
etc
|
et cetera
|
EU
|
European Union
|
ff
|
following
|
ibid
|
Ibidem (in the same place)
|
ie
|
id est (that is)
|
MDL
|
Multidistrict Litigation
|
MP
|
Public Prosecutor’s Office
|
n
|
footnote (internal, ie, within the same chapter)
|
no
|
Number
|
NGOs
|
Nongovernmental Organization or civil society organization
|
NOx
|
Nitrogen Oxid
|
PIL
|
Public Interest Litigation
|
para
|
paragraph/paragraphs
|
RAD
|
Representative Actions Directive (EU)
|
SAL
|
Social Action Litigation
|
US/USA
|
United States/United States of America
|
v
|
versus
|
vol
|
volume/volumes
|
ZZPInt
|
Zeitschrift für Zivilprozess International Jahrbuch des
Internationalen Zivilprozessrechts (Journal of Civil Procedure
International Yearbook of International Civil Procedure Law)
|
Legislation
National
Code of Civil Procedure (Germany).
Musterverfahrengesetz (Model Procedural Law)
(Germany).
Cases
Torreggiani and Others v Italy, Case 43517/09 (ECHR), Judgment 8 January 2013
[ECLI:CE:ECHR:2013:0108JUD004351709].
Various parties obo minors v Anglo-American South Africa Limited and
Others (High Court Johannesburg, South Africa), Judgment 14 December 2023
[2023] ZAGPJHC 1474.
Maundu and Others v Minister of Police, 63331/2020
(High Court Pretoria, South Africa), Judgment 10 November 2021 [2021] ZAGPPHC 772.
Government of the Republic of South Africa v GrootBoom (Constitutional Court, South Africa), Judgment 4 October 2000 [2001] 1 AS 46.
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goals for private gains (RAND Institute for Civil Justice 2000).
Hensler D R, ‘Aggregate Litigation’ in Collective litigation and protection of non-litigants’ interests.
, ‘Can private class actions
enforce economic regulations? Do they? Should they?’ (2015) Conference
Proceedings (Submitted) https://aei.pitt.edu/79042/1/Hensler.pdf
accessed 12 February 2024.
, ‘Third-Party Financing of
Class Action Litigation in the United States: Will the
Sky Fall?’ (2014) DePaul Law Review 510.
, ‘The globalization of class
actions: an overview’ (2009) 622 The Annals of the American Academy, 7-29.
Hess B, ‘Strategic Litigation: A New Phenomenon in Dispute Resolution’
(2022) 3, MPILux Research Paper https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4107384 accessed
12 February 2024.
Klonoff R H, ‘Class Actions in the Year 2026: A Prognosis’ (2016) 65
Emory Law Journal, 1654–55.
Jain P, ‘Class action framework in India’ National Report,
not published yet.
Jobim M F, Cortes e o tratamento mundial de conflitos
estruturais (livraria do Advogado 2023).
Loudenslager K, ‘The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal: An Ethics Case Study’
https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/0z708x04q accessed 26 May 2024.
Luff P, ‘Risk regulation and regulatory litigation’ (2011) 64 (1) Rutgers
Law Review.
Meller-Hannich C, ‘Germany’ in B Gesell and T M J Möllers,
Enforcing Consumer and Capital Markets Law: The Diesel Emissions Scandal
(2020) 104.
Rosemberg D, ‘The regulatory Advantage of class action’ in W K Viscusi
(ed), Regulation trough litigation (AEI-Brookings
Joint Center for Regulatory Studies 2002).
Strong S I, ‘Regulatory litigation in the European Union: does the U.S. class
action have a new analogue?’ (2012) 88 (2) Notre Dame Law Review, 899-972.
Sustein C, After the rights revolution: reconceiving the
regulatory state (Harvard University Press 1990).
Vale, ‘Entendendo o acordo de reparação integral’
https://www.vale.com/documents/d/guest/cartilha-para-a-comunidade-acordo-de-reparacao-integral-12444-1-1 accessed 10 August 2023.
Verbic F, Além do papel - leituras críticas
sobre processo coletivo (Thoth 2023).
[1] Written by Teresa Arruda Alvim. I
want to thank my colleagues, brilliant Brazilian lawyers and spectacular scholars Caio Victor Ribeiro
dos Santos and Sérgio Cruz Arenhart for the exchange of ideas on this topic and the
recommendation of appropriate literature on several topics.
[2] D R Hensler,
‘The globalization of class actions: an overview’ (2009) 622 The Annals of the American
Academy, 7: ‘In less than a decade, the number of countries that permit representative litigation
by private actors has multiplied dramatically. A minority of these procedures share all the features of
the American class action for money damages. But there is a trend toward permitting private individuals
and organizations to come forward on behalf of absent parties to obtain injunctive or declaratory relief
of monetary compensation in some or all circumstances’.
[3] Part V Introductory Chapter, para
86-107.
[4] B Hess, ‘Strategic Litigation:
A New Phenomenon in Dispute Resolution’ (2022) 3, MPILux Research Paper, available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4107384 accessed 12 February 2024.
[5] S C Arenhart, G Osna and M F Jobim,
Curso de processo estrutural (Thomson Reuters
Brasil, 2021).
[6] D Rosemberg, ‘The Regulatory
Advantage of Class Action,’ in W K Viscusi (ed), Regulation
through litigation (AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies,
2002), 244-304. Arguing that in the same way administrative regulation deems it efficient to focus on
the establishment of broad regulatory standards for certain products, it is also more efficient to make
the legal system broach all the issues related to a certain product in a single lawsuit, instead of
doing so in a series of individual proceedings, thus enabling the courts to adopt, when rendering a
decision, a holistic and, therefore, clearer perspective of the market. It should be emphasized that
Rosemberg nevertheless focuses on the superiority of compensatory class actions in relation to
individual actions, rather than on the superiority of compensatory class actions in relation to
administrative regulation.
[7] S I Strong, ‘Regulatory
litigation in the European Union: does the U.S. class action have a new analogue?’ (2012) 88 (2)
Notre Dame Law Review, 899: ‘Although several types of regulatory litigation exist, the U.S. class
action is often considered the paradigmatic model for this type of private regulation’.
[8] B Hess (n 3) 26, says that strategic
litigation frequently concerns destruction of common goods (climate change) the protection of general
interests (human rights) and large-scale unlawful situations (eg, environmental pollution). Obviously,
these goods are more efficiently protected by class actions by individual lawsuits.
[9] D R Hensler, ‘Can private
class actions enforce economic regulations? Do they? Should they?’ (2015) Conference Proceedings (Submitted), available at:
https://aei.pitt.edu/79042/1/Hensler.pdf accessed 12 February 2024: ‘Modern regulatory regimes are complex technical systems. Like hardware and software,
they have many moving parts. Like airplanes, spacecraft, and deep water drilling their safe and
effective performance requires human action – and judgment – at critical stages. Like
pilots, the public regulators are susceptible to distraction. Like aeronautical engineers, they are
susceptible to “groupthink”. Like drilling engineers, their incentives to assure safety may
be offset by their need to meet tight deadlines under budget and performance pressure’.
[10] P Luff, ‘Risk regulation
and regulatory litigation’ (2011) 64 (1) Rutgers Law Review, 175-176: ‘As society developed,
citizens began to look more and more to the government to deal with risk. At the same time, the
industrialization of society meant that citizens were exposed to both new risks and increased
probabilities of old risks. The governmental response to these risks resulted in the regulatory state we
have today. But as the epigraph that begins this Article recognizes, governments cannot deal with all
the risks that an individual faces on a daily basis. This observation may be as obvious as it is
uncontroversial, at least when we take a moment to reflect upon it. But the problem is that the
government is also unable to deal with all the risks that society would
like it to deal with. In such cases, gaps arise between the socially
demanded and governmentally provide levels-of-risks regulation. This Article argues that regulatory
litigation developed – and persists – because it fills these gaps’.
[11] P Luff, ‘Risk Regulation
and Regulatory Litigation’, (2011) Rutgers Law Review 64 (73), 84.
[12] C Sustein, After the rights
revolution: reconceiving the regulatory state (Harvard University Press, 1990), 55.
[13] P J Cook and J Ludwig,
‘Litigation as Regulation: firearms’, in W K Viscusi (ed), Regulation Through Litigation (AEI-Brookings Joint
Center for Regulatory Studies, 2002), 89: ‘In short, many of the changes in gun commerce and use
that may be worthwhile in reducing the problem of gun violence in America will require legislation.
Although litigation cannot affect these changes directly, the city lawsuits may alter the political
environment in which the relevant legislative debates occur’.
[14] B Hess (n 3) 11:
‘The most prominent judicial hubs for private law actions are currently England and the
Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the ongoing Royal Dutch Shell litigation concerning human rights
violations and ecological torts committed against the local population in Nigeria has gained much
attention. However, the political ambition of the plaintiffs goes much further: The multitude of these
lawsuits aims at convincing national and supranational lawmakers to implement protective legislation
targeting multinationals and businesses engaged in global supply chains to impose on their contractual
partners certain moral (and equally legal) standards of non-discrimination, fair salaries and adequate
human working conditions – without any reference to the local legislation applicable to the branch
involved’.
[15] K Loudenslager,
‘The Volkswagen Emissions Scandal: An Ethics Case Study’, available at https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/downloads/td96k3017?filename=Loudenslager_Kelsi_STS_Research_Paper.pdf accessed 14 August 2024: ‘In 2014, a study performed by West Virginia University
revealed one of the largest scandals in automotive history. The study was designed to test the NOx
emissions of several Volkswagen diesel cars while driving on the highway. The results exposed the
company’s deceit as the vehicles studied produced up to forty times the permitted amount of NOx
gasses (Forsgren 2019)’.
Part X Chapter 2, 13. This case led to legislative changes in
Germany: ‘The model declaratory lawsuit was established on 1 November 2018. It is implemented in
sections 606-14 of the German Code of Civil Procedure. The law was essentially passed to protect
purchasers of Volkswagen vehicles from the tolling period which would have ended in 2018, which is the
reason why the law is critically dubbed ‘Lex Volkswagen’. The model declaratory suit is
regulated in sections 606ff of the Code of Civil Procedure. Through the model declaratory suit, consumer
protection associations can have facts and legal issues determined in court, which in turn has a binding
effect on the individual processes of registered consumers. The lawsuit is aimed at clarifying factual
and legal preliminary questions that are relevant in all individual cases. The model declaratory suit
therefore cannot lead to a performance obligation of the defendant. The finding has no further legal
consequences. For example, it does not result in compensation of injured parties, nor does it prohibit a
business practice in future. Thus, although the court can determine the lawfulness of a particular
business practice, the consumers must proceed with individual lawsuits to recover damages’.
Also check article C Meller-Hannich, ‘Germany’ in B
Gesell and T M J Möllers, Enforcing Consumer and Capital Markets
Law: The Diesel Emissions Scandal (Intersentia 2020), 104.
[18] P Luff, ‘Risk regulation
and regulatory litigation’ (2011) 64 (1) Rutgers Law Review, 205: ‘The completed-events
distinction seems to separate those cases – like breach of contract cases, which concern
themselves with the occurrence or non-occurrence of an event specified in the contract – from
cases like those involving prison or school reform, which deal with ongoing wrongs’.
[19] M F Jobim, Cortes e o tratamento mundial de conflitos estruturais (livraria do Advogado 2023).
[20] A O França, ‘A
suprema corte da Índia,’ in R Brandão (ed), Cortes
Constitucionais e Supremas Cortes (JusPodivm 2017), 351-388.
[21] P Jain, ‘Class action
framework in India’, National Report, not published
yet.
[22] Government of the Republic of South Africa v GrootBoom (Constitutional Court, South Africa) Judgment 4 October 2000 [2001] (1) SA 46.
[23] R O Berizonce, ‘Los
conflictos de interés público’, in A P Grinover, K Watanabe and S H Costa (ed),
O processo para solução de conflitos de interesse
público (JusPodivm 2022), 261-286 and F Verbic, Além do papel - leituras críticas sobre processo coletivo (Thoth 2023), 83 ff.
[24] T A Alvim, ‘Brazilian class
actions and environmental accidents’ (2023) 27 ZZP Int – Zeitschrift für Zivilprozess
International Jahrbuch des Internationalen Zivilprozessrechts, 203-218.
[25] D Hensler [et al], Class action dilemmas: pursuing public goals for private gains (RAND Institute for Civil Justice 2000), 68. Full redress agreement, available at
https://www.vale.com/documents/d/guest/cartilha-para-a-comunidade-acordo-de-reparacao-integral-12444-1-1 accessed 10 August 2023, 5.
[26] Ibid 68. This appears to be
Deborah Hensler’s stance: ‘Despite their distaste for class litigation and their dismay
about rising numbers of lawsuits, many corporate representatives [...] said that [...] class litigation
had caused them to review financial and employment practices. Likewise, some manufacturers noted that
heightened concerns about potential class action suits sometimes have a positive influence on product
design decisions’.
[27] P Luff, ‘Risk regulation
and regulatory litigation’ (2011) 64 (1) Rutgers Law Review, 184: ‘Contracts for consumer
goods involve the same risk of nonfulfillment but may carry additional risks based on the nature of the
harm. For example, consider the case of negative-value consumer class actions – aggregated claims
too small to be brought economically on an individual basis. A manufacturing defect in a mass production
world can result in a large group of people that has purchased the same systematically defective item.
But if less formal means of redress are unsuccessful and the individuals, unaware that anyone else is
having the problem, are unable to put much pressure on the company to remedy the situation, most if not
all of them will be hesitant to sue because the cost of bringing a lawsuit would be greater than the
cost of replacing the broken or defective item. In these defective-product cases, class actions address
two risks – one primary and the other secondary. The primary risk is the one mentioned at the
beginning of the previous paragraph – that the producer is not upholding its part of the bargain
to provide a working item that will continue to function for a reasonable length of time. The second
risk is related to the nature of the harm – because the expected payoff of bringing a lawsuit
against the manufacturer is small compared to the cost of bringing such a suit, the individual will have
no practical recourse when the primary risk is realized. These risks are dealt with in three ways.
First, we do see examples of informal regulatory bodies that have developed in the absence of formal,
state regulation – organizations like the Better Business Bureau and Consumers Union – that
are likely to exert strong influence on producers of household goods and can thus alleviate some of the
strain on consumers when producers create the risks I have discussed. Additionally, administrative
agency regulation deals with some of the risks that can come from defective products, although these are
usually in the realm of tort risks rather than non-performance risks’.
[28] A Freiberg, ‘Re-stocking
the regulatory tool-kit’, Jerusalem Forum on Regulation & Governance, 2010, 12:
‘Governments create or authorise legal systems to facilitate and order the resolution of disputes,
not just between the state and individuals or corporations, but also between private individuals and
corporations. Private litigation is not ordinarily regarded as a regulatory tool, but it can have
regulatory outcomes, some of which are intended by the state. Like direct government regulation through
statute, litigation can arise from market failure where harm has been inflicted on a party. Where
governments fail to act, or act inadequately, private litigation may play a role in filling regulatory
gaps. This has occurred in recent years, particularly in relation to harms caused by tobacco, alcohol,
firearms, asbestos, pharmaceutical drugs, therapeutic goods such as breast implants and professional
misconduct (Smith 2002). In such cases the aim of the litigation moves beyond the compensatory to the
punitive or deterrent or, more broadly the regulatory – to change behaviour. It may be regarded as
a form of devolution of enforcement from the public to the private sector. Class actions are a hybrid of
public and private action and purposes’.
[29] K
Boudreaux and B Yandle, ‘Public Bads and Public Nuisance- Common Law Remedies for Environmental
Decline’, (2002) 14 (55) Fordham Environmental Law Review, 61: ‘At common law, a public nuisance is
defined as an unreasonable interference with rights held by the public in general, not merely with the
rights or interests of a few individuals. An example would be interference with the public's right
to maintain the navigability of a river. A public nuisance involves the harmful use of common and public
property’.
[30] P J Cook and J Ludwig,
‘Litigation as Regulation: firearms’, in W K Viscusi (ed), Regulation Through Litigation (AEI-Brookings Joint
Center for Regulatory Studies, 2002), 67.
[31] Torreggiani and Others v Italy (ECHR) Judgment 8
January 2013 [ECLI:CE:ECHR:2013:0108JUD004351709].
[33] Written by Elisabetta Silvestri.
[34] R H Klonoff, ‘Class Actions
in the Year 2026: A Prognosis’ (2016) 65 Emory LJ 1569, 1654–55.
[35] Written by Deborah
Hensler.
[36] Written by Theo Broodryk.
[37] See, for example, K K Anele,
‘Revisiting Class Action Litigations against Corporations in Nigeria: Lessons for the US
Experience’ (2022) The Journal of Corporate and Commercial Law and Practice.
[38] Following the
publication of data recorded in T Broodryk, ‘Access to Justice Through Class Action: The South
African Case’ in Law, Justice and Transformation (Stellenbosch University Faculty of Law, LexisNexis 2022), there have been two further
class action certification decisions: Various parties obo minors v
Anglo-American South Africa Limited and Others (High Court Johannesburg,
South Africa), Judgment 14 December 2023 [2023] ZAGPJHC 1474, and Maundu and Others v Minister of Police, 63331/2020 (High
Court Pretoria, South Africa), Judgment 10 November 2021 [2021] ZAGPPHC 772.
[39] Trustees for the
time being of Children's Resource Centre Trust and Others v Pioneer Food (Pty) Ltd and Others 2013 (2) SA 213 (SCA), para 15.
[40] T Broodryk, ‘Class action
certification and constitutional claims: the South African case’ (2020) Maastricht Journal of
European and Comparative Law.
[41] T Broodryk (n 34) 59-66.
[43] D R Hensler, ‘Third-Party
Financing of Class Action Litigation in the United States: Will the Sky Fall? Third-Party Financing of
Class Action Litigation in the United States: Will the Sky Fall?’ (2014) DePaul Law Review
510.
[44] Statistics South Africa,
‘National Poverty Lines’ (2023) available at https://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P03101/P031012023.pdf accessed 13 August 2024.
[45] T Broodryk, ‘The South
African Class Action vs Group Action as an Appropriate Procedural Device’ (2019) Stell
LR 6-32. Trustees for the time being of Children's Resource
Centre Trust and Others v Pioneer Food (Pty) Ltd and Others (2013 (2) SA
213 (SCA), para 19.