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PhD - portrait - Marie Holm

Marie Holm is a Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Bergen’s Faculty of Law. She is carrying out research into the legal force of judgements in civil cases.

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Marie Holm is a Doctoral Research Fellow at the Faculty of Law.
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André Kvalvågnes

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Can you briefly describe your background in the period before you became a Doctoral Research Fellow?

As soon as I had completed my law degree, I started working as a teacher at the Faculty so that I had some experience of teaching before taking on the position of Doctoral Research Fellow.

Your PhD project is on the legal force of judgements in civil cases. What does that mean?

A legally enforceable judgement is one that is binding and final. It does not allow the parties to a case to subsequently bring a new case regarding the same claim that was settled by means of the judgement. If other cases are brought where the settled claim is of significance, the result of the legally enforceable judgement will apply untried. A judgement is legally enforceable when it is no longer subject to attack by means of ordinary remedy. This implies that a judgement is legally enforceable when the time of appeal has expired and none of the parties have appealed the judgement before then.

Once a case has been settled with a legally enforceable judgement, new circumstances may arise that are of relevance to the case. In the event of such subsequent circumstances, the question arises as to whether these represent an entitlement to have the case re-assessed by the courts.  If we take, for example, a legally enforceable judgement between A and B whereby it is determined that B is the owner of a property. A subsequently requests that the issue of right of ownership be re-tried, and claims that B has sold the property to A after the first judgement.

The main issue I address in my project is in which circumstances is it permissible, due to various types of subsequent circumstances, to re-process a claim that has been settled by a legally enforceable judgement.

Why is this project important?

The legal effect of judgements allows the parties to a case to act according to the decision and relying on the fact that the decision is permanent. This ability to act according to the judgement is important both for the parties to the case and society as a whole. Moreover, the institute of legal force helps to minimise the costs of litigation, in part as the legal effect of the judgements restricts the number of times the same case can be processed in the courts of law. At the same time, one of the goals of civil proceedings is to reach judgements that are correct, and the legal force of a judgement is in principle an obstacle to the case being re-tried in circumstances where it subsequently emerges that the initial judgement was incorrect. As such, important issues are at stake that can have both negative and positive implications. In my opinion, it is therefore important to clarify the scope of the legal force of judgements.

Your position with the Faculty is linked to the Research Group for Civil Procedure. Can you explain what this group does?

The Research Group has weekly meetings where we discuss new legal decisions and publications. The Group members can also discuss issues that have emerged during their own research. Other research group meetings are organised with a larger scope. At these, we may for example invite an external lecturer to talk on a subject, which we subsequently discuss.

As a Doctoral Research Fellow, how do you benefit from being a member of the Research Group?
Being part of the Research Group provides me with the perfect opportunity to discuss issues I encounter while writing my thesis and to gain input from the other members of the group. The fact that we discuss new events that are of relevance to the field makes it easier for me to keep up-to-date. The Research Group meetings are also important for me socially.

You are also the only Doctoral Research Fellow in this Research Group. What is it like to be the only person in the group with this role? Do the others in the group take extra good care of you?

The other group members really do take good care of me. Initially, I found it a bit daunting, but I quickly realised that the group is a valuable resource for me, and that the meetings are by no means a test of your abilities.

The Research Group also includes several Master’s degree students. What is it like to work with them?

Yes, we have three students in our group who are writing their Master’s thesis over two semesters. It is very interesting to gain an insight into their projects and listen to the problems they face when working on their projects. It is also good to have other people in the group who spend their days focusing on one specific subject.