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This open access book offers an analytical presentation of how Europe has created its own version of collective actions. In the last three decades, Europe has seen a remarkable proliferation of collective action legislation, making class actions the most successful export product of the American legal scholarship. While its spread has been surrounded by distrust and suspiciousness, today more than half of the EU Member States have introduced collective actions for damages and from those who did, more than half chose, to some extent, the opt-out system. This book demonstrates why collective actions have been felt needed from the perspective of access to justice and effectiveness of law, the European debate and the deep layers of the European reaction and resistance, revealing how the Copernican turn of class actions questions the fundamentals of the European thinking about market and public interest. Using a transsystemic presentation of the European national models, it analyzes the way collective actions were accommodated with the European regulatory environment, the novel and peculiar regulatory questions they had to address and how and why they work differently on this side of the Atlantic.

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Introduction.- Why are collective actions needed in Europe: Small claims are not reasonably enforced in practice and collective actions ensure effective access to justice.- Major European objections and fears against the opt-out system: Superego, ego and ID.- Transatlantic perspectives: Comparative law framing.- European models of collective actions.- Conclusions.

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"Professor Nagy takes an important and detailed look at class and collective redress both inside and outside the European Union, providing useful insights to lawyers and policymakers in multiple jurisdictions. This text is a welcome addition to the literature on large-scale dispute resolution and should be required reading for scholars and practitioners around the world."
Prof. S. I. Strong, Manley O. Hudson Professor of Law, University of Missouri

"While many European jurisdictions have introduced some form of collective redress, most comparative academic studies focus on comparisons between legislative regimes. Class Actions in Europe is a refreshing compact analysis of the topic from a comparative, economic and trans-systemic perspective, focusing on key factors of the design of an effective collective redress regime. It is a must read for everyone who wants to obtain a better understanding of the European approach to collective claim resolution and of its economic implications and impediments."

Prof. Ianika Tzankova, Professor of Law, Tilburg University

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