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Public Justice, Private Dispute Resolution And Democracy, Trevor C. W. Farrow

Trevor C. W. Farrow

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.