Promovendus: Dhr. P. Bravo Hurtado

Promotores: Prof.Mr. C.H. van Rhee, Dr. A. Parise

Duur: 1/10/2013 - 30/9/2017

Promotie: Maastricht, 11/9/2018

Abstract:

The theme of the proposed project is access to the supreme courts in a selection of jurisdictions. The central research question is how the caseload of these courts can be controlled by way of ‘access filters’ without limiting the various roles the courts should fulfill in a modern democratic state under the rule of law (e.g. development of the law, control of decision-making at lower courts). This is a complicated issue, especially since litigants who lose their case are naturally inclined to continue litigation on appeal before superior courts of law. Such individual decisions of litigants may produce heavy caseloads. Given the limited resources available for the administration of justice, this overall heavy caseload may increase the time needed for the resolution of individual disputes; decrease the quality of individual judgments; and result in such a large number of cases that decisions become unpredictable and case law lacking in uniformity. To solve this problem, various jurisdictions have developed access filters at the superior court level.