Collective Legal Mobilisation: Exploring Class Actions in Sweden and Canada

Although a wide range of activities constitute legal mobilisation, a long-standing area of neglect in this research tradition has concerned the role of collective or aggregative mechanisms such as class actions, particularly outside the American context. This essay situates class actions in the legal mobilisation research tradition, drawing on insights from the two comparator regimes of Canada and Sweden, and offers a critical exploratory account of their role in facilitating collective legal mobilisation. The first section establishes the theoretical foundations for incorporating class actions into the tradition, exploring the main approaches to conceptualising legal mobilisation and identifying ways in which this incorporation expands and contributes to conventional approaches. The second section undertakes a comparative analysis with a focus on key design points and legal opportunity structures that promote or hinder collective legal mobilisation. Finally, the third section explores new and future trajectories of research, with a focus on benefits of comparative sociology of law and a critical orientation towards the promises and perils of collective legal mobilisation.