Basic principles of the reforms

Read the text to find an extra information on the preconditions, the main objectives and strategies of the civil procedure reform in England and Wales

Work in groups. Think over the topic and prepare in advance sets of cards with written statements or questions to discuss (while preparing, make necessary notes using the information and language you have learnt from the texts of this unit, of the previous ones and additional sources of information).

Describe the process of a civil claim in your legal system as if to a client from a different system who wants to initiate a claim.

Explain grammar phenomena of the underlined words in the text and translate them.

V. SPEAKING

In class compare and discuss your ideas with other members of your group. Each group can prepare a summary of the main points that have come up. The most interesting discussion point can be used to open up the discussion to the whole group.

There are some useful phrases to help you:

Say what you think: I think (that)/ To my mind/ To my point of view/ In my opinion/ My opinion on … is that / I suppose (presume, think) that …. Personally, I don’t think that …. It seems to me that….

Invite your partners to speak: What about you,/ What’s your opinion,/ What do you think, (Anna)?

Agreeing: You (smb.) are (is) quite/absolutely/ right. I fully/ entirely/ completely/ agree with you. I suppose you may be right.

Disagreeing: I’m not sure you’re right about/ as to …. I’m afraid I can’t agree with you. I don’t really think so/ that …. I fully/ entirely disagree with …/ that…. I have different/ contrary/ opposed view/opinion.

Persuade your partners to agree: But don’t you agree that …? Yes, but I’m sure you’d agree that …. Don’t you think that …?

Reach a decision: So, do we all agree that …? Have we all decided that …? Well, most of us seem to think that ….

Unit 3 Fundamental Changes in Civil Procedure in the UK Section 2 Basic Principles of the Reforms

I. LEAD-IN

1. Think over the following questions and prepare to discuss them in class:

· In the continental law legal system, in particular in Ukraine, trial procedure is called “inquisitorial”. Could you explain why?

· Do you know in what countries trial procedure is called “adversarial”? Can you name its main features?

· Think about the main difference between “inquisitorial” and “adversarial” procedure.

· What do you know about the reform of Civil Procedure in the UK? For example: when it took place; who initiated reforms, the basic principles of the reforms, etc.;

· To your mind what was the main objective of the reforms?

TEXT 2

Notes:

¹ to commence with – розпочинатися з

² amounts at stake in the dispute – сума спору

³ to introduce – вводити

⁴ with a view to – з метою

⁵ to be enforced – бути нав’язаним

Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) is the new procedural code, which was enacted in 1998 and revoked the Rules of the Supreme Court with effect from 26 April 1999. The Rules, a result of the reforms proposed by Lord Woolf’s Access to Justice (Final Report) 1996, now govern proceedings in the civil cases of the Court of Appeal (Civil Division), the High Court, and the county courts. The Civil Procedure Rules were designed to improve access to justice by making legal proceedings cheaper, quicker, and easier to understand for non-lawyers. Unlike the previous rules of Civil procedure, the CPR commence with a statement of their Overriding Objective, both to aid in the application of specific provisions and to guide behaviour where no specific rule applies.

The Woolf Interim Report (1995) is a very valuable document in its statement of the objectives of a civil justice system, on the failings of the approach existed before and its radical proposals for reform.

The main idea of the civil procedure reform is to render civil justice system more efficient, namely to make it less expensive and more rapid. To achieve these goals it was proposed to shift away from the adversarial culture to judicial management and to encourage alternative dispute resolution (ADR).

The proposals centred on four strategies or principles:

(1) greater judicial management of the process including, notably, tighter and properly enforced timetables and a greater control on discovery and the use of expert evidence (both of which have an escalating effect on costs);

(2) the allocation of different types of cases, normally determinable according to the amounts at stake² in the disputes, to different sets of management rules;

(3) the encouragement of early settlements and resort to ADR procedures;

(4) a greater transparency of legal costs.

Thus the main proposals envisaged a fundamental shift along the spectrum of judicial culture, away from a purer adversarial approach to a more inquisitorial approach. The Rules in fact made radical changes to civil process of the correspondent courts. Under the new regime the judge becomes a case manager. The court sets a timetable for litigation, with the parties being under an obligation to the court to adhere to timescales which control the progress of the case. Procedure rules are supplemented by detailed instructions made by the judge which support the rules, known as practice directions, and pre-action protocols.

Pre-action protocols were introduced³ after the reform in 1999 to speed up the early parts of the litigation process. Pre-action protocols encourage greater contact between the parties at the earliest possible opportunity in order to encourage better and earlier exchange of information with a view to⁴ fair and early settlement of claims. Pre-action protocols can be enforced⁵ by the court and are also seen as an aspect of the courts’ new responsibility of case-management under the Civil Procedure Rules.

II. DEVELOPMENT

1. React to the following statements: agree or disagree. Support your answers by information or facts from the text.

1. Civil Procedure Rules is the Rules of the Supreme Court.

2. The reform was proposed by the Lord Chancellor in 1996.

3. As a result of this reform civil procedure in the UK became purely inquisitorial.

4. The main objective of the reform was to raise prestige of judges and to make their role more important.

2. Find in the text the information to answer the following questions:

1. Who is “the father” of the reforms in civil judiciary?

2. What is the main idea of the reform mentioned in the text?

3. What fundamental change did Lord Woolf’s proposals envisage?

4. What changes of the civil procedure were introduced after the reform in 1999?

3. Scan the text to find the words which mean:

a. регулювати;

b. доступ до правосуддя;

c. попередній;

d. передбачати;

e. відповідний;

f. альтернативне вирішення спорів.

.

4. To summarize the text, complete the sentences:

1. Civil Procedure Rules is ….

2. It is a result of ….

3. The main idea of the reform is ….

4. The proposals for the reform are based on the following principles:…

5. The fundamental change is that the reform led to ….

6. The main results of the radical changes ….

III. PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE

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