'Where the Wild Things Are'. Reflections on the State and Future of European Collective Redress

Abstract

‘And when he came to the place where the wild things are they roared their terrible roars and gnashed their terrible teeth and rolled their terrible eyes and showed their terrible claws till Max said ‘BE STILL’ and tamed them with the magic trick of staring into all their yellow eyes without blinking once and they were frightened and called him the most wild thing of all’. (M Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are, HarperCollins Children's Books, New York 1963) Introduction Almost a decade ago, I started to dig into the topic of complex litigation and collective redress. My supervisor, who had written a PhD about res iudicata and had touched on the issue of the binding effect of a judicial decision on third parties, recommended me to talk with an American scholar, since the class action mechanism was seen as ‘the hallmark feature of the American legal system’. Over the course of the years, this (now) colleague, provided me with a wealth of information about American class actions. However, the very first book (s)he gave me was a children's book. It was Maurice Sendak's epic book ‘Where The Wild Things Are’. Since then, I have looked with boundless curiosity and inquisitiveness at the ‘wild things’. Over the years, and as in the book, they have looked tantalizing and enticing. Other times, I perceived them as unfriendly and menacing. Because in some places they are being ousted, the ‘wild things’ decided to move to other places, where they encountered other species. The fact that almost a decade later there is still much ado about the ‘wild things’ stands out like a sore thumb. In this chapter, I want to reflect about the state and future of European collective redress. The goal is to look at the broader perspective. Various (complex) litigation tools exist, which all aim at achieving collective redress. I see the latter as the goal or outcome of dispute resolution processes. The objective is not to sketch a comprehensive overview of what is going on in the (currently) 28 Member States, but to share some general observations that, according to me, should and could steer the sometimes highly controversial debate.