Alternative Methods of Dispute Resolution as a Measure to Reduce the Workload on Courts: A Comparative Legal Study (Part 1)

Abstract

The paper considers alternative methods of dispute resolution as a measure to reduce the workload on the courts. At present, the need to reduce the workload on courts is quite acute in Russia. According to the members of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ), a large workload on courts (and, accordingly, on judges) seriously affects the quality of justice and the timing of the consideration of cases. It should be noted that all judicial systems of the world without exception face this problem, but the statistics of the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ) shows that over the past few years the burden on courts and judges has significantly decreased in the EU countries. The authors summarize that foreign judicial practice has successfully tested working tools to reduce the burden on courts, which the Russian judicial system may well borrow. However, these tools require gradual development and elaboration given all Russian legal realities. A sharp transition to alternative dispute resolution may negatively affect the quality of dispute resolution in Russia. If the legislator restricts the ability of citizens to consider disputes in courts (for example, by increasing court fees), but at the same time alternative dispute resolution methods will remain at a low level of legal and social development (citizens’ distrust, weak legislative elaboration, etc.), then citizens will completely lose the platform for legal dispute resolution. It is quite possible that we will return to the criminal experience of the economy of the 1990s.