Title: Danish class actions - a European model?

Authors: Peter Arnt Nielsen; Karin Linhart

Addresses: Juridisk Institut/Law Department, Copenhagen Business School, DK – 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark. ' Akademische Rätin, Juristische Fakultät, Universität Würzburg, Domerschulstr. 16, 97070 Würzburg, Germany

Abstract: The authors present the EU intentions to take legislative action in respect of class actions and outline the recent, national initiatives on class actions within the member States of the EU. Then, the main features of US class actions are outlined followed by a detailed examination of the new Danish provisions on class actions. The authors compare the US and the Danish provisions and conclude that the Danish provisions on class actions may serve as a model for future EU legislation given the Danish compromise between the opt-in and the opt-out model for class actions.

Keywords: class actions; opt-in models; opt-out models; USA; United States; Denmark; EU; European Union; Europe; legal initiatives; international civil procedure; legislative action; national initiatives; legislation; UK; United Kingdom; England; Wales; Germany; Italy; Norway; Sweden; Belgium; Holland; Netherlands; Austria; private law.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPL.2012.047314

International Journal of Private Law, 2012 Vol.5 No.3, pp.229 - 242

Published online: 20 Sep 2014 *

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