Emerging trends in participatory justice

Access to justice is recognised as a human right in many international instruments. However, the changing shapes of the right to access to justice force us to encounter not only its individual but also its collective dimension. Considering the collective dimension of the right to access to the courts, it is relevant to reflect on the increasing participation of civil society in many countries, while the practice of public interest litigation in general (particularly with regards to climate change) is growing.  

Public interest litigation is linked to the access to justice of minorities in the protection of human rights or other urgent claims like the issues related to global warming. A recent illustration is climate litigation, which is well developed in The Netherlands. This trend is coupled with the emergent practice of raising private funds for supporting some of these claims, which entails a novel form of participation of citizens in the public discussion, by economically supporting those causes in which they believe.   

Under this experience, we can observe that access to justice cannot be confined to access to the courts and the traditional roles of the defendant and claimant. Access to justice also means in these cases, the ability to participate in other’s claims in order to protect the public interest or even the well-functioning of democracy and the rule of law. In this context, the changing roles of civil society can serve to reshape civil litigation, by promoting democratic processes with the intention of solving social problems through the courts.  

Given these circumstances, it becomes crucial at this stage to reflect on the role of the courts and the adequacy of traditional procedures, to create room for these new participatory practices, while protecting the due process of law, the rule of law, and human rights standards.  

This workshop aims to bring together scholars that will reflect on the institutional constrains on legal mobilisation, the forms of participation within the EU courts as well as issues related to the standing and the representation in the courtrooms. The several ways of participation in public interest litigation and the prosecution of environmental crimes will also be addresses, while exploring the space of the EU to allow participatory practices. 

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