Civil Dispute Resolution

This course will introduce students to key procedural rules and principles in civil litigation (and alternative dispute resolution) and teach them how to critically evaluate the rules and the leading cases seeking to apply them. 

The course is divided into 4 topics, although the time dedicated to each varies substantially:

1. The right to fair trial: the rights to which people are entitled in court, and to get to court, and exceptions and limits on those rights.
2. Litigation procedures and the overriding objective of the Civil Procedure Rules: how the courts balance accuracy, timeliness and cost in resolving disputes.
3. Alternative dispute resolution: principles of mediation and arbitration, and the benefits and costs of private dispute resolution.
4. Theories of procedural justice: the nature of procedural justice, its relationship to substantive law, and the role of the legal system in the rule of law.