February 16, 2007

"Will the American style of litigation and regulation take over in Europe?" ask two lawyer/commentators in the Times Online. "The evidence that we are a more litigious society or that we are becoming American in our approach to the law is inconclusive." However, Britain and many other EU governments are making class actions easier to organize; meanwhile, stateside courts are exporting U.S. law through extraterritorial applications of jurisdiction. And antitrust actions, to name one category, seem to be gathering new momentum in U.K. courts, per a W$J report last month.

More: And here's The Economist on the advent of U.S.-style class actions (via Steir).