Public Justice Private Dispute Resolution and Democracy

This paper is about the widespread and systematic privatization of the public civil justice system. In particular, it: (1) documents the move to privatize civil disputes across all aspects of the justice system (including courts, administrative tribunals and state-sanctioned arbitration regimes); (2) looks at some of the benefits and drawbacks of privatization, specifically including negative impacts on systems of democratic governance; and (3) identifies justice - rather than efficiency - as the primary benchmark by which civil justice reform initiatives should be judged.