Juristische Gesellschaft zu Berlin: Lecture of Prof. Dr. Thomas Riehm on 12 February 2025
On Wednesday, 12 February 2025, Prof. Dr. Thomas Riehm (University of Passau) will speak at the invitation of the Juristische Gesellschaft zu Berlin on “Civil Procedure of the Future - Future of Civil Procedure”. The event will take place at 6 p.m. at the Berlin Court of Appeal (Elßholzstraße 30-33, 10781 Berlin). All interested parties are warmly invited!
On the topic: Shortly before the 150th anniversary of the ZPO, the civil procedure is facing profound challenges: On the one hand, the number of cases brought before civil courts has been falling almost steadily for over 20 years; on the other hand, the civil justice system is complaining about overload, especially due to so-called mass proceedings, and the length of proceedings is increasing. Against this backdrop, various working groups have developed proposals for the “civil procedure of the future” in 2024. The lecture presents the proposals and critically examines them - in search of the future of civil procedure.
About the speaker: Prof. Dr. Thomas Riehm has held the Chair of German and European Private Law, Civil Procedure Law and Legal Theory at the University of Passau since 2013 and is the spokesperson for the Institute for the Law of the Digital Society (IRDG) located there. His work focuses on contract and liability law as well as civil procedural law with a particular focus on legal issues relating to digitalization. He has been involved in the modernization and digitalization of civil procedure both academically and practically for many years, including as a member of the interdisciplinary think tank “Berliner Gruppe”, as co-chair of a working group of the presidents of the Higher Regional Courts, the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court of Justice on “Civil Procedure of the Future”, as co-chair of the “Technology in Arbitration” working group of the DIS e. V. and as co-editor of the legal handbook “Digitalization and Civil Proceedings” (de Gruyter, 2023; 2nd ed forthcoming 2025). At the University of Passau, he has been organizing the annual public lecture series Legal Tech since 2019, which has since dealt with digitization issues in civil dispute resolution.
