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

Comparative Research in Law & Political Economy

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.