Process economy

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The process economics is a term of procedural law . The aim is to maximize the benefits of a process on the one hand, and to sensibly limit the effort involved on the other.

The implementation of process-economic considerations ideally leads to the fastest possible result being achieved for the party seeking the right to avoid avoidable procedural costs, while the financial and personnel costs are reduced for the courts. For the question of process economy, however, the focus is not primarily on the individual process, but on the entirety of processes (the process as an institution). For example, an obiter dictum can appear to be a hindrance with regard to the duration of the individual process, but at the same time lead to the fact that further processes can be avoided due to the legal issues clarified therein.

A process-economic optimization can be achieved parallel to the economic understanding either by increasing the benefit of a legal process (or the process as an institution) or by reducing its effort. The utility can approximately be viewed as a measure of the research into material truth. This applies directly to criminal proceedings , where the judiciary is bound by the official and investigative maxims; In civil proceedings , on the other hand, due to the disposition and negotiation maxims, the material truth is only sought indirectly (in some cases, formal truth is also used here). The effort involved in a process can be divided into monetary and time effort, whereby the time elapsed also has a monetary component (e.g. lawyer and court costs based on the hours worked), but is not exhausted in this (the time factor is also a justice factor).

There is no legal or otherwise generally recognized definition of the term, but the term is increasingly found in legal materials as well as judicial considerations. There is no agreement as to whether the requirement to proceed in a process-economical manner is a general procedural principle . The requirement or the principle is derived from both the (constitutional) principle of proportionality and the (unwritten) procedural principle of expediency.

It appears undisputed that a number of the provisions of the individual procedural rules are based on process-economic considerations, such as the regulations on changing complaints in civil proceedings or the regulations on consultation in criminal proceedings .

literature

  • Beat Brändli: Litigation Economics in Swiss Law. Basics, Federal Court rulings and effects in civil proceedings. (= Treatises on Swiss Law. 794). Stämpfli, Bern 2013, ISBN 978-3-7272-0090-8 .
  • Christoph von Mettenheim : The principle of process economy in civil proceedings. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1970, DNB 457587474 .