This volume of essays draws together research on different types of collective actions: group actions, representative actions, test case procedures, derivative actions and class actions. The main focus is on how these actions can enhance access to justice and on how to balance the interests of private actors in protecting their rights with the interests of society as a whole. Rather than focusing on collective actions only as a procedural device per se, the contributors to this book also examine how these mechanisms relate to their broader social context. Bringing together a broad range of scholarship from the areas of competition, consumer, environmental, company and securities law, the book includes contributions from Asian, European and North American scholars and therefore expands the scope of the traditional European and/or American debate.