Book Review: Class Actions in Context: How Culture, Economics and Politics Shape Collective Litigation

• Author: Celeste Poltak
• Pages: 281-288

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BOOK REV IEW:

CLASS ACTIONS IN

CONTEXT: HOW CULTUR E, ECONOMICS

AND POLITICS SHAPE COLLECTIVE

LITIGATION

Celeste Poltak*

A. OV ERVIEW

The new collection of Class Actions in Context1 is a mu st-read for class ac-

tions lawyers i n North America and beyond. It is a true breat h of fresh air

in its contribution to the imp act of social and economic factors law yers

often forget in the prosecution of their cas es. Within its pages, coun sel

will f‌ind an in formative rev iew of collective litigation procedure s around

the world from a unique and welcome perspective: what i nforms the

players, decision makers, a nd lawyers involved in collective litigat ion

outside the courtroom s and board rooms?

The text is anchored with in a global framework of representative col-

lective litigation, recogni zed in more than three doze n national juris-

dictions. The collection of works represents a t ruly global collaborative

effort of fourteen scholars from va rious parts of the world who each

undertook qualitative re search on group litigation in a spec if‌ic country

(ranging from Israel, to Bra zil, to Taiwan, and beyond). While each jur is-

diction of course has di fferent substantive law and refers to t his type of

litigation in different m anners, at their core, each (notionally) resembles

the North America n idea of a class action. Interestingly, the text conf‌ir ms

that “the clas s action has now been integrated into civil law regimes i n

* BA (Queen’s University), LLB (University of Ca lgary), LLM (London School of

Economics and Politic al Science), class actions partne r, Koskie Min sky LLP.

1 Deborah R Hensler, Chr istopher Hodges, & Ianika Tzan kova, eds, Class Ac-

tions in Context : How Culture, Economics and Politics Shape Collective Litiga-

tion (Cheltenham, UK: E dward Elgar Publishing, 2016) [Hensler, Hodges, &

Tza nko va].