Class Actions Materials
New original PILA resources on Class Actions are now available on our website! These resources were prepared by Thomas E. Hudson, a William Sampson Fellow who undertook an externship with PILA in 2011. Thomas is currently a J.D. student at the University of Washington, Seattle.
You can click the links below to see the resources, or find them by filtering for Class Actions under the Barriers to Public Interest Litigation section of the website.
The Marcos case – How Class Actions can benefit Human Rights - This paper is an example of how class actions can be of benefit to human rights. The case concerns the human rights abuses inflicted upon the people of the Philippines by the Marcos regime. Filipino victims filed a suit against Marcos under the Alien Tort Claims Act and the Torture Victim Prevention Act and when Marcos died, it moved against his estate. As there were over 10,000 claims, class actions were the more favoured procedure and this avoids the barriers that hearing each case individually presents.
Finland's Class Actions System - The Finnish Class Action (CA) Model, adopted in 2007, has very unique traits. It is a very conservative system, limiting both what legal issues class Plaintiffs can sue over (consumer claims with all opt-in Plaintiffs) as well as who has standing to sue (only the Consumer Ombudsman). Finland at one time proposed implementing an American style CA. However, corporate opposition lead to political infighting and compromise, which lead to the more conservative procedure actually passed in 2007. This framework’s conservative nature makes its effect debateable but will perhaps give it a possible advantage in making it more attractive for import into Ireland.
Italy's Class Actions System - In 2010, Italy put its first Class Action (CA) procedure into effect. Italy added it to their Consumer Code in 2006, but political infighting led the government to postpone the procedure’s enforcement several times until 2010. The result is a unique and ambiguous Italian CA. It encourages consumer organizations, rather than plaintiffs, to run CAs. As soon as the law became active, consumer organizations filed a multitude of cases. Because the law was not available until 2010, very few cases have yet traversed the system. Because of its unique nature, Italian CAs could possibly provide an interesting avenue for Ireland to consider when deciding whether to establish a CA procedure but risks giving Judges and consumer groups too much power.
Silver v Imax Corp – In this decision, the Canadian Superior Court of Justice made an important ruling favouring securities class actions. Judge Corbett upheld Judge Rensburg’s ruling, which allowed a group of shareholders to continue their class action suit against IMAX. Plaintiffs alleged that IMAX recklessly or fraudulently misinformed the shareholders regarding progress on their new technologies, which resulted in lost stock value. The IMAX shareholders sued as a class under Ontario’s 2005 Securities Act Amendments, which were designed to allow for shareholder class actions. Prior to this case, the courts yet to test the Amendments’ procedural limitations on class Plaintiffs.
In re Chiquita Brands Int'l – Bananas, Class Actions and Human Rights - This case summary concerns class actions taken in the United States District Court against Chiquita (an international food company) and demonstrates how class actions can be of benefit to human rights. Chiquita admitted liability for “protection payments” to the pro-government AUC in Colombia. The plaintiffs sued under the Alien Tort Claims Act and were entitled to damages. Thus the class action procedure may be used to “streamline compensation” for victims of human rights abuses.
Immigration Materials
Materials from a recent Refugee and Immigration Practitioner Network seminar are now also available here. The two presentations, by Jacqueline Kelly and Theresa Blake, concern child protection in an immigration context.