Civil Courts Coping with Covid

The Covid-19 pandemic has propelled, and continues to propel, unprecedented transformations to civil proceedings and the landscape in which they operate. A leap in digitisation – courts pivoting from paper-based procedure and face-to-face hearings to paperless proceedings and remote hearings – has occurred in jurisdictions across the globe. This transition raises several questions that will be discussed by a panel of five distinguished experts in the field of civil litigation representing five different legal systems. What have been the most pressing problems that civil courts have faced, and how have these problems been resolved? What issues does the technological leap engender? What mechanisms other than digitisation help courts continue to operate during ‘the state of exception’? Finally, the panel members will share their insights into what permanent footprints on civil justice are the pandemic likely to leave.

This conference builds upon the book Civil Courts Coping with Covid-19. This book contains chapters on 23 countries across the globe and is available online (open access).

Speakers

Prof. David Bamford (Australia)
Emeritus Professor, Flinders University, Australia

Prof. Hermes Zaneti Jr. (Brazil)
Professor, Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil

Prof. Catherine Piché (Canada)
Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Montreal, Canada

Prof. Elisabetta Silvestri (Italy)
Associate Professor (ret.), Department of Law, University of Pavia, Italy

Prof. Bart Krans (Netherlands)
Professor Private Law and Civil Procedure Law, Leiden University, Netherlands

Prof. Anna Nylund (Norway)
Professor of Law, University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway

Prof. Piotr Rylski (Poland)
Professor at the University of Warsaw, Poland

13.00 – 13.15 
welcome and introduction
Bart Krans and Anna Nylund

13.15   - 13.25
David Bamford (Australia)
Responding to Covid-19 – Australian Civil Courts in 2020

13.25- 13.35
Hermes Zaneti Jr. (Brazil)
Supreme Courts Matter? The Brazilian Justice System and the Covid19

13.35-13.45
Catherine Piché (Canada)
What the Future Holds for Canadian Courts After Covid-19: From Online Replicas of Traditional Processes to Innovative Online Access to Justice.”

13.45-13.55
Elisabetta Silvestri (Italy)
‘Expecto Patronum’: Covid-19 and Italian Civil Justice

13.55-14.05
Piotr Rylski (Poland)
Reform of civil procedure in the era of pandemic - Polish experience

14.05 – 14.45
Q&A

14.45-15.00
Conclusions
Bart Krans and Anna  Nylund

No conference fee, participation is free!