Chapter 1 — The Overriding Objective and the Court’s Management Authority

Overview

This chapter introduces the overriding objective in CPR 1.1 — the single rule from which the whole of English civil procedure descends — and the court’s authority to manage the cases before it. Watch the video lecture below, then test yourself with the knowledge check.

What you will learn

• The Woolf reforms and the shift from party-driven to court-managed litigation
• The content of the overriding objective: dealing with cases justly and at proportionate cost (CPR 1.1)
• The court’s duty (CPR 1.2) and the parties’ duty to cooperate (CPR 1.3)
• The enumerated powers of active case management (CPR 1.4)
• Proportionality as the organising idea, following the 2013 Jackson reforms
• The limits of cooperation: cooperative as to process, adversarial as to substance

Key authorities

Denton v TH White [2014] EWCA Civ 906 · CPR 1.1–1.4 · the Woolf reforms (CPR 1998) · the April 2013 proportionality amendment · Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil CBC (compulsory ADR).