Building institutional interoperability for European Civil Procedure: The case of Money Claim OnLine in England and Wales

The general aim of the project is to contribute to the development of e-justice to foster civil justice services at the European level. Overall, it is to be regarded as a further step of a broad research endeavor that IRSIG-CNR has been carrying in recent years to develop a large body of empirical knowledge about the functioning of e-justice systems in EU and to identify key issues affecting the development of e-justice in different countries. The project is designed to assess the legal, institutional, organizational and technical conditions in which e-justice can successfully support and handle small claims in trans-border cases as indicated in Priority 3.1 of the call, paying particular attention to the normative framework recently developed at EU level (the European payment orders, the Regulations on small claims No 861/2007 No 1896/2006 and the Directive on EU payment 2008/52/EC on mediation). Specifically the project focuses on interoperability in the provision of electronic systems for handling small claims online across national borders in the EU. It aims at configuring and comparing different models for providing e-justice. The project purports to analyze the compatibilities and the different types of interoperability between the national systems. That entails not only the study of technical standards, but also the different organizational arrangements and the juridical base of different national systems. The basic question the project intends to answer is: What needs to be done for the national justice systems to become more integrated and capable of ‘talking’ to one another in the treatment of small claims and payment orders online? Should technical, functional and legal interfaces be designed or should a new electronic jurisdiction be created at the European level encompassing the national systems?