Online Dispute Resolution Pilots in England and the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022

Abstract

The current task of the Russian legislature in developing new procedures for dispute resolution using modern technologies is to apply the latest experience of advanced foreign countries in this sphere. The UK is undoubtedly one of these countries. The UK’s experience in digitizing its own justice system and establishing an online court is the focus of this article. It analyzes the concept of online courts in the UK, various pilots in this field, as well as the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022, which enshrined a number of provisions regarding online procedures; it identifies some shortcomings of the concept of online procedure and pilot projects. Purpose: based on the analysis of pilot projects reports, regulations and scientific sources to form an idea of the formation and development of online dispute resolution (ODR) procedure in courts and tribunals of Great Britain. Methods: theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic; empirical methods of comparison, description, interpretation. Such specific scientific methods as legal-dogmatic and interpretation of legal norms are used. The study reveals that, against the background of austerity, justice in England and Wales is changing significantly through the use of technologies, which begs the question: are the fundamental principles of due process being lost in the pursuit of modernization and efficiency? The attempt to digitize the UK’s justice system involves the creation of an online court, the feature of which is mediation built into the procedure as part of dispute resolution. It is expected that the online court will become a mandatory forum for resolving cases within its jurisdiction and will initially deal with money disputes of up to £25,000. However, the issues of access to justice for all categories of citizens and the openness and transparency of justice have not yet been resolved.