The Quiet Revolution: English Civil Court Reform and the Introduction of Case Management

Abstract

“REVOLUTION IN THE COURTS” proclaimed the banner headline in the London Evening Standard, an indication of the high level of public interest in a report proposing court and procedural reform in England. The Dickensian image of the English law courts has never faded: It is a commonly held view that the legal system is archaic, slow, and out of reach of all but the wealthiest litigants. The headlines referred to the 1988 Report of the Review Body on Civil Justice, the final publication in the government’s three-year Civil Justice Review. This article traces the developing interest in case management in England, describes the history of the Civil Justice Review, and examines its recommendations in the context of its tentative endorsement of pretrial judicial intervention. Some of this may give the American reader a sense of deja vu.