The Principle of Procedural Economy in the Estonian Civil Procedure

Abstract

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid in the European Union to making procedure simpler, faster and more efficient.

In his report at the XIII plenary meeting of judges on 14 February 2014 in Tartu, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Priit Pikamäe aptly pointed out that “One ghost wanders around the post-modern legal culture space – the ghost of efficiency. As the progressiveness of different court procedures is more and more assessed by their efficiency, i.e. effectiveness, the court system of the post-modern age as a whole must first and foremost be efficient. This means that in terms of the public resource allocated for it, the court system must be able to provide an even greater number of resolved court cases using as little procedural time as possible. As a rule, court administration strategy documents do not focus on the ways to achieve a just decision, but on increasing the efficiency of the court system during hearings. Obviously, this poses a separate interesting and intriguing public law question of why out of all the state authority branches efficient operation is expected first and foremost from the judicial authority, while in case of enforcement and legislative authorities this category is not emphasised to at least a similar extent.”