R.R. Verkerk
Fact-Finding in Civil Litigation
A Comparative Perspective
Ius Commune Europaeum
Remme Verkerk PhD thesis
Fact-Finding in Civil Litigation. A Comparative Perspective
ISBN 978-94-000-0074-2 D/2010/7849/83 NUR 822
© 2010 Intersentia
Antwerp – Oxford – Portland www.intersentia.com
Cover photograph © Kuzma – Dreamstime.com
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photo copy, micro- film or any other means, without written permission from the author.
v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Dit boek vormt de afsluiting van een project waar ik meerdere jaren aan heb gewerkt. Een bijzondere periode, waarin ik veel heb mogen leren. Een periode waarin ik vrijwel zonder uitzondering met plezier ’s ochtends mijn kantoor binnenstapte. De rust van het onderzoek werd vaak afgewisseld met de gezellige drukte van het onderwijs.
Tijdens de afgelopen jaren heb ik mijn werkzaamheden met veel collegae besproken. Ik heb veel mogen leren van de talloze gesprekken die in formele en informele settings plaatsvonden. Een speciaal dankwoord voor mijn beide promotoren is hier zeker op zijn plaats. Jaap en Remco, jullie hebben me beiden gesteund, vertrouwen gegeven en me gevraagd en ongevraagd van advies voorzien. Eveneens wil ik alle andere collegae aan de faculteit bedanken, met velen heb ik samen onderwijs verzorgd, congressen bezocht en regelmatig een praatje gemaakt. Door jullie aanwezigheid is werken zoveel meer geweest dan het verrichten van werkzaamheden. Ik hoop jullie ook in de toekomst nog vaak te treffen.
I also would like to address the many colleagues that have provided me with very valuable assistance writing this book. First of all, I thank the members of the Assesment Committee, that have put a lot of effort reading the manuscript. Their comments and suggestions have improved the quality of this book. I would like to thank colleages at the University of Vienna and those at Wayne State University for their assistance. I would like to express gratitude to the many American academics and practitioners that have helped me to understand the American procedural system. Without their assistance, it would not have been possible to understand the operatation of the American procedural system.
Verder een woord van dank aan de vele anderen die dit werk mogelijk gemaakt hebben. Een woord van dank aan de Rechtbank Maastricht, waar ik een unieke mogelijkheid gekregen heb het Nederlands burgerlijk procesrecht zelf toe te passen. Eveneens wil ik hen bedanken die mij hebben bijgestaan met de afronding en opmaak van dit boek.
vi
Acknowledgements
Tot slot een woord van dank aan mijn vrienden, ouders en familie. In het bijzonder een woord van dank aan Femmie: de rust en liefde die ik thuis ervaren heb, is mijn werk enkel ten goede gekomen. Verder nog een vriendelijk woord voor Lucas en Thijs: zonder jullie was dit boek veel eerder afgerond, maar had mijn werk veel minder betekenis.
Remme Verkerk Maastricht, maart 2010
vii TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...v
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS...xiii
CHAPTER 1:INTRODUCTION... 1
1. The Subject Matter of this Book: Fact-finding in Civil Litigation ... 1
2. Research Questions and General Overview... 4
PART I: GENERAL HISTORIC AND COMPARATIVE INTRODUCTION Introduction... 11
CHAPTER 2:ACONCISE HISTORY OF FACT-FINDING ON THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT... 13
1. Procedure in Medieval and Early Modern Times ... 13
1.1. The Romano-Canonical Model... 13
1.2. The Influence of the Romano-Canonical Model ... 19
2. The Early Codification of Procedural Law ... 22
2.1. Early Austrian Codifications ... 23
2.2. The 1806 French Code of Civil Procedure ... 25
2.3. The 1838 Dutch Code of Civil Procedure... 26
3. Modern Codifications of Procedural Law ... 33
3.1. The 1895 Austrian Code of Civil Procedure... 33
3.1.1. Introduction of the Austrian Code of Civil Procedure ... 33
3.1.2. The Leading Principles and Innovations of the Austrian Code... 35
3.1.3. The Austrian Procedural System since 1895... 38
3.1.4. The Operation of the Austrian Code in Legal Practice ... 41
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3.2. The Incremental Reform of the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure ... 45
3.2.1. Many Proposals, Few Changes, 1838-1959 ... 45
3.2.2. The Incremental Reform of Dutch Civil Procedure... 49
4. The Present Continental Procedural Landscape... 62
4.1. The Renewed Structure of the Proceedings... 62
4.2. The Rise of Disclosure and Discovery... 66
4.2.1. Demise of the nemo tenetur edere contra se Principle... 66
4.2.2. Increased Duties to Provide Information... 69
4.2.3. Orders to Produce Evidence... 72
4.3. The Deformalization of the Law of Evidence... 75
4.4. The Demise of the Adversarial System ... 76
CHAPTER 3:FACT-GATHERING AND EVIDENCE IN ANGLO-AMERICAN LEGAL HISTORY... 79
1. The English Roots of the United States’ Procedural System ... 79
1.1. Fact Gathering and Evidence in Early English Law... 80
1.1.1. The English Common Law ... 80
1.1.2. The Court of Chancery ... 85
1.2. Early Modes of Fact Gathering and Evidence in the United States... 86
1.2.1. The Early United States Court System ... 86
1.2.2. Fact-Finding during the late 18th and the early 19th Century ... 87
1.2.3. Evidence in the Late 18th Century and the Early 19th Century... 89
2. The Codification of Procedural Law ... 94
2.1. The Early Codifications... 94
2.1.1. The 1805 Louisiana Code of Procedure... 94
2.1.2. The New York Field Code ... 95
2.2. The Codification of Federal Law... 98
2.2.1. The Procedure in the Federal Courts Prior to 1938 ... 98
2.2.2. The 1938 Federal Rules on Civil Procedure... 100
2.2.3. The Codification of the Law on Evidence... 111
3. Recent Developments... 115
3.1. Critique of the Inefficiency of American Litigation... 115
3.2. The Recent History of Discovery: A History of Abuse ... 116
3.3. Case Management... 122
4. The New Procedural Landscape... 126
4.1. Developments in Pleading... 127
4.2. The New Middle Phase in Litigation... 128
4.3. The Decline of Trials... 130
4.4. Conclusion: the Privatization of Fact-Gathering ... 135
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CHAPTER 4:FACT-FINDING:ACONCISE GENERAL COMPARISON... 139
1. Legal Transplants and the Divergence of Laws... 139
2. Fact-finding Processes: the Main Differences... 143
2.1. Concentrated and Dispersed Processes ... 143
2.2. Different Roles of the Actors in the Legal Process... 147
2.3. Comparing Fact-finding Processes: the Duration of Litigation ... 150
PART II: SPECIFIC CHAPTERS ON COMPARATIVE CIVIL PROCEDURE Introduction ... 157
CHAPTER 5:EXPERT EVIDENCE... 159
1. The Continental Expert as an Auxiliary of the Court... 159
1.1. Expertise and its Relation to Judicial Case Management ... 159
1.2. Court-appointed Experts in Continental Jurisdictions ... 161
1.3. Fair Trial and the Limits of Court-driven Expertise... 165
1.4. The Danger of a too Influential Expert... 168
2. Party-Appointed Experts ... 170
2.1. Austria ... 170
2.2. Expert Witnesses in the United States... 171
2.3. Party-appointed Experts in the Netherlands ... 177
3. Comparative Lessons and Mixed Models ... 179
3.1. A Mixed Model: The Single Joint Expert in English Law... 179
3.2. The Attractiveness of the Mixed Model... 181
3.3. Comparative Lessons ... 182
CHAPTER 6:DISCOVERY AND PARTY INTERROGATION... 185
1. History of Party Interrogation... 185
1.1. Written Interrogatories: A Shared Historic Background ... 185
1.2. Diverging Modes of Fact-Discovery... 192
1.2.1. The Continent: Personal Appearance of the Parties... 193
1.2.2. Pretrial Conferences in American Law ... 201
1.2.3. Anglo-American Law: Fact Discovery ... 203
1.2.4. Party-driven Fact-Discovery on the Continent ... 210
1.3. Interrogation of Parties as Evidence... 212
1.3.1. Formal Party Oaths... 212
1.3.2. Hearing the Parties as Witnesses ... 217
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2. Principles and Comparative Analysis... 231
2.1. The Practice of Party Interrogation... 231
2.1.1. The Frequency, Length and Duration of Party Interrogation ... 231
2.1.2. The Costs, Effectiveness and Fairness of Party Interrogation... 234
2.2. Principles of Party Interrogation... 239
2.2.1. Evidence and Party Allegation... 239
2.2.2. Rigidity and Flexibility... 241
2.2.3. The Preparation of Testimony... 242
2.2.4. Direct and Indirect Sanctions ... 244
2.2.5. The Scope and Admissibility of Party Interrogation... 245
2.2.6. Court-Directed and Party-Directed Modes of Examination... 247
2.2.7. Recording the Interrogation ... 248
2.3. Diverging Principles in a Comparative Perspective ... 249
PART III: COMPARATIVE CIVIL LITIGATION: IDEOLOGY, THEORY AND PSYCHOLOGY Introduction ... 255
CHAPTER 7:THE AUSTRIAN MODEL: A UTILITARIAN APPROACH TO CIVIL LITIGATION... 257
1. The Social Model of Civil Procedure... 257
1.1. A Collectivistic Point of Departure... 257
1.2. A Utilitarian Perspective... 260
1.3. The Ends of Civil Litigation... 262
2. Refutation of the Adversarial System ... 264
2.1. The Principles of Party-Disposition and Party-Presentation ... 264
2.2. The Introduction of the Managerial Judge ... 267
3. The Pursuit of Truth ... 269
3.1. Formal and Substantive Truth ... 269
3.2. The Pursuit of Truth: Practical Implementation ... 271
4. Critical Observations ... 276
CHAPTER 8:ARECONSTRUCTION OF THE U.S.MODEL:DEMOCRACY AND ADVERSARIALISM... 279
1. Introduction ... 279
2. The Adversarial System ... 279
2.1. Defining the Adversarial System... 279
2.2. The Rationale behind the Adversarial System... 281
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2.2.1. Adversarialism and Premature Decisions ... 281
2.2.2. The Adversarial System and Perceived Procedural Fairness... 285
2.3. The Influence of the Adversarial System on Fact-finding ... 288
3. The Civil Jury... 290
3.1. Introduction ... 290
3.2. The Rationale behind the Civil Jury ... 293
3.3. The Influence of the Jury on the Process of Fact-Finding ... 296
4. Critical Observations ... 299
CHAPTER 9:POLITICAL IDEOLOGY,DEMOCRACY AND THE DIVERSE FORMS OF PROCEDURE... 301
1. Introduction ... 301
2. Procedure and the Role of the State... 303
3. Democracy, Rules and the Organization of Institutions... 315
4. Political Ideology, Democracy and the Forms of Procedure... 324
PART IV: THE (IN)EFFICIENCY OF ADVERSARIAL JUSTICE CHAPTER 10:THE (IN)EFFICIENCY OF ADVERSARIAL JUSTICE... 329
1. Introduction: How Simple Cases become Complex Cases... 329
2. Efficient Fact-Finding Processes... 332
3. Adversarialism and Inefficiencies in Civil Litigation ... 335
3.1. Adversarialism ... 335
3.2. Adversarial Fact-Finding as a Competitive Game ... 337
3.3. Adversarialism and Incentives to Obstruct the Pursuit of Truth ... 343
4. Understanding Procedural Legislation... 344
5. Efficient Fact-finding: Comparative Remarks... 350
CHAPTER 11:SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION... 357
1. Historical Trends in the Process of Fact-finding... 357
2. Different Fact Finding Rules and Practices... 362
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3. Understanding Differences: Procedural Models and Rules ... 364
4. Understanding Differences: Fact-finding Processes in Action... 366
5. Concluding Remarks ... 370
SAMENVATTING.HET ONDERZOEK NAAR DE FEITEN IN HET CIVIELE PROCES, EEN RECHTSVERGELIJKEND PERSPECTIEF... 371
BIBLIOGRAPHY... 381
INDEX... 435
CURRICULUM VITAE... 441
xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
ABA American Bar Association
AcP Archiv für de civilistische Praxis
ALI American Law Institute
BlgNr Beilage(n) zu den stenografischen Protokollen des Nationalrates
C. Codex (Justinian, 533 A.D.)
CJRA Civil Justice Reform Act
CPR Civil Procedural Rules (England)
CEPEJ The European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice
D. Digest (533 A.D.)
ECJ European Court of Justice
ECtHR European Court of Human Rights
EGZPO Einführungsgesetz zur Zivilprozessordnung FRCP Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
FRD Federal Rules Decisions
FRE Federal Rules of Evidence
HNJV Handelingen Nederlandse Juristen Vereniging
JBl Juristische Blätter
JZ Juristenzeitung
LJN Landelijk Jurisprudentie Nummer
NCSC National Center for State Courts
NJ Nederlandse Jurisprudentie
NJB Nederlands Juristenblad
NTBR Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Burgerlijk Recht
NUCCUSL National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws
ÖJZ Österreichische Juristenzeitung
RGBl Reichsgesetzblatt
Rv Wetboek van Burgerlijke Rechtsvordering
RvdW Rechtspraak van de Week
TCR Tijdschrift voor Civiele Rechtspleging Trema Tijdschrift voor de Rechterlijke Macht
Unidroit International Institute for the Unification of Private Law
xiv
List of Abbreviations
W. Weekblad van het Recht
WODC Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum WPNR Weekblad voor Privaatrecht Notariaat en Registratie
ZPO Zivilprozessordnung
ZZP Zeitschrift für Zivilprozess
ZZPInt Zeitschrift für Zivilprozess international
