A Dispute System Design Perspective on the Future Development of Consumer Dispute Resolution

Abstract

This chapter explores the concept of dispute system design in the context of consumer dispute resolution (CDR). While there is a growing literature on dispute system design (DSD) in North America, practitioners and scholars in the UK and Europe have failed to give significant attention to DSD as a discrete activity. As the role of CDR within civil justice systems across Europe continues to grow, the activity of ‘designing justice’ in this area should increasingly be seen as a matter of constitutional as well as practical significance. A failure to address this issue risks undermining the continued legitimacy of state-sanctioned dispute resolution for consumer-to-business disputes. In this chapter, we present a new dispute design model for CDR mechanisms and, drawing on several case studies, demonstrate how it may be applied in practice.