ABSTRACT

So far as effectiveness is concerned, several questions arise: first, whether the adversarial system is more effective than an inquisitorial one; and, secondly, given the pressures on the civil law system regarding unmet need for legal services and reductions in legal aid and advice provision, whether alternatives to traditional court settlement of disputes should be promoted (for example, arbitration, mediation and conciliation). Lord Woolf and others, including the Lord Chancellor, have promoted the idea of alternative dispute resolution, on the basis that litigation should be a last resort.