The Public Policy-Implementing Role of Nordic Courts in Civil Dispute Resolution

Abstract

This chapter explores the role of Nordic courts in safeguarding certain public values and interests, whether substantial or procedural, in the three types of civil dispute resolution that can potentially lead to state enforcement, namely civil litigation, arbitration and mediation. First, it shows how Nordic courts in civil litigation may take on an’active role’ vis-à-vis the parties but that the legal contours of this role remain unclear and controversial. Secondly, it shows how current and proposed statutory frameworks governing arbitration and mediation give national courts an important role in safeguarding public values and interests which raises important questions in law concerning the role of courts as gatekeepers of access to court and state enforcement for private actors. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the need for developing a clearer and more coherent approach to defining this public policy-implementing role of courts across all three types of civil dispute resolution. It is argued that such a coherent approach is needed and that it will be valuable to analyse the public policy-implementing role of courts in a Nordic context, since the Nordic countries generally share many of these relevant public values and interests.