NDLI: The costs of class actions: allocation and collective redress in the US experience

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Calabresi, Guido Schwartz, Kevin S.
Copyright Year	2011
Abstract	Once a preserve of the American legal landscape, the class action device today transcends geographic boundaries. In the past decade, efforts have intensified to establish collective litigation instruments in diverse legal terrains outside the United States—including Europe—often with the common goal of allowing some form of collective legal redress while avoiding perceived disadvantages of class actions in the American experience. Today more than ever, from legislators to litigants to scholars, European reformers face the challenge—and the opportunity—of making fundamental choices about the scope and shape of the collective legal remedies they wish to make available. Choices about the shape of the class action device reflect foundational judgments about the proper allocation of costs, and there is much from the US experience that can inform Europe’s prospective reformers. This article describes the history and current status of class action rules in the US, and then compares class actions and another form of extra-compensatory damages—one type of punitive damages—as means of doing the same thing. Although neither punitive damages of this sort nor class actions generally have traditionally existed in civil law systems, they both—and especially this particular form of punitive damages—can, from an economic view, be made to vindicate the same kind of social cost accounting goals. By considering these legal devices together, we hope to shed light on crucial choices facing Europe as it grapples with how best to provide collective legal redress in light of the lessons of the US experience with class actions.
Starting Page	169
Ending Page	183
Page Count	15
File Format	PDF
ISSN	09291261
Journal	European Journal of Law and Economics
Volume Number	32
Issue Number	2
e-ISSN	15729990
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2011-03-12
Publisher Place	Boston
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Class actions Collective legal redress Punitive damages Extra-compensatory damages Allocation of costs Deterrence Public Finance & Economics European Integration Law and Economics Commercial Law
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Business and International Management Law Economics and Econometrics

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Incentive effects of class actions and punitive damages under alternative procedural regimes

The simple economics of class action: private provision of club and public goods

The law and economics of class actions

Seeking rents through class actions and legislative lobbying: a comparison

Product Liability in the European Union: Compensation and Deterrence Issues

Incomplete antitrust laws and private actions for damages

Reorganization in US and European Bankruptcy law

The law firm as an investment bank in class actions

Deregulation, property rights, and legal system

The costs of class actions: allocation and collective redress in the US experience

Similar Documents

Incentive effects of class actions and punitive damages under alternative procedural regimes

The simple economics of class action: private provision of club and public goods

The law and economics of class actions

Seeking rents through class actions and legislative lobbying: a comparison

Product Liability in the European Union: Compensation and Deterrence Issues

Incomplete antitrust laws and private actions for damages

Reorganization in US and European Bankruptcy law

The law firm as an investment bank in class actions

Deregulation, property rights, and legal system

The costs of class actions: allocation and collective redress in the US experience