This book examines collective rights, and collective or class action
procedures, in the European Union and selected member states, including
Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands,
Portugal, Spain, UK and others. Conceptually, collective rights and
redistributive civil justice models conflict with principles of autonomy
and fundamental individual rights in liberal legal orders. However, in
interconnected modern society, breach of private rights and correlated
public norms can inflict mass harm on numerous individuals and on the
collective public interest. Constitutional civil, political and equality
rights, minority rights, economic, social and cultural rights, and
diffuse environmental rights, with individual and collective or
solidarity dimensions, arise under European Union law and in various
guises across national legal systems. Although EU law is a unifying
trait, there is extensive diversity in the recognition and enforcement
of collective or solidarity rights across member states. Breach of these
rights has particular propensity to cause mass or collective harm.
Enforcement can be challenging, but collective or class action
procedures, whilst controversial, can facilitate access to justice. As
this book reveals, despite European Union harmonization objectives,
member states have hugely varying approaches to collective
constitutional and private law rights and class or group action
enforcement procedures.
