The Nebulous Effectiveness, Efficiency And Fairness Of The European e-Justice Portal vis-à-vis Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

The EU’s current ten-year strategy, Europe 2020, is influenced by the drive for sustainable development and corporate responsibility, i.e. by the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), and by increasing digital demand. This has led to the creation of the European e-Justice Portal, which is conceived as an electronic one-stop-shop in the area of justice, and which includes access to business registers at both European and national levels. The available data on CSR and free e-access to such data are intended as a valuable contribution to awareness and transparency, and to assist, at the ultimate stakeholder level, the Europe 2020 triad of priorities. The objective of this paper is to assess how this works in reality, and the hypothesis is that the operation of this Portal remains behind expectations. A cross-disciplinary and multi-jurisdictional study is made using both primary data, especially a field search and direct operation testing, and secondary data, especially well-recognized academic sources, and yields interesting results. A holistic meta-analysis is used to process this data and to explore the CSR definition and framework associated with the Portal, and reveals configurational and operational problems that impair effectiveness, efficiency and fairness. Thus, the hypothesis concerning the problematic operation of the Portal is confirmed, and suggestions for corrections and improvements are offered.