The Main Problems in Access to Court Regarding the Dispute Resolution of Finnish Companies

Abstract

Companies seem to prefer some other dispute resolution mechanisms instead of litigation in the state general courts in dispositive civil disputes in Finland . There are signs that the courts have lost their power to judge in business disputes. This is partly evident from the low number of case law in Finland that relates to business-to-business disputes. Companies are eligible to the access to courts according to the Constitution of Finland, Section 21 and the European Convention on Human Rights (EHRC) Article 6. Corporate access to court is important both for companies and substantive law. The author has conducted a study dealing with the issue of corporate access to court and corporate dispute resolution recently at the University of Turku. This article will focus on some of the main findings in that study. The research hypothesis included a claim that the main factors affecting the use of the courts are duration, costs and publicity of the procedure, the judges' expertise in business disputes and, lastly, predictability of the judgment. The study method was empirical, and it included a sample of 250 largest Finnish companies. The results indicate that in order to widen the access to court from a corporate point of view in the future, it should be necessary to make the litigation quicker and broaden the judges' knowledge in the area of business disputes.