Librería Portfolio

he relationship between class actions and government makes for a nuanced and fascinating study. Government sets the scene by implementing and designing the regime, by choosing whether to act as a seed-funder for the regime, and by deciding to what extent it should regulate the regime against worldwide classes being litigated on its doorstep. It can then become a key player in the litigation itself. Government may be a representative claimant bringing the action, or a class member, or a potential financial beneficiary. Most commonly of all, it may be a defendant, being sued under the very regime which it enacted into law. With numerous opt-out class action regimes around the common law world in place, and others on the horizon, the book takes a comparative perspective throughout, and concludes with a series of recommendations, drawn from that comparative analysis of government´s intricate interplay with class actions.

Novel and comparative in scope, this book will benefit a readership in a wide range of jurisdictions, both where an opt-out class action has already been implemented and where it is under consideration
Offers practical recommendations in each chapter, resembling the aims of a law reform report
Covers the role of government in all of its guises, where class actions implementation and design are concerned, looking at government in all respects, from enabler and designer, to defendant
Contains 100 design points of class action statutes, rules, and case law jurisprudence, assessing whether these points should be contained in legislation or left to the courts to develop in case-by-case determination



Table of Contents

1. Introduction
Part I. ´Preparing a Path to the Stadium´:
2. Government as class actions enabler
3. Government as class actions designer
4. Government as class actions funder
5. Government as ´gate-keeper´: cross-border class actions
Part II. ´As a Participant in the Match´:
6. Government as representative claimant
7. Government as class member
8. Government as class actions defendant
9. Government as class actions beneficiary
10. Conclusion: levelling the playing field.