Nordic Court Culture in Progress: Historical and Futuristic Perspectives

Abstract

This chapter addresses topical issues within the subject area of civil litigation. The perspective will be partly historical and partly futuristic. The progress that is just now going on in European civil litigation is explained and studied from the traditional and historical perspectives, both of which are used as a tool to find the explanations for recent developments. Civil litigation, the author contends, seems to return to ancient venues that are outside courts, to be resolved by alternative methods, such as mediation. There are many common factors with the ancient dispute resolution, but because the current society strongly differs from the ancient one, the reasons must be studied from the societal perspective as well. The questions to be set are if there is something new under the sun or if we are just circulating. In other words, which are the modern characteristics of the progressive civil litigation, and from which parts of it does dispute resolution seem to return to the very traditional and ancient forms only? Why can nowadays justice be seen as a negotiated compromise between parties? Why we can talk about the new court culture, why can adjudication be seen as court service and the parties as customers and no longer as “royal subjects”?