Trust in Specialised Courts: The Unified Patent Court (UPC) as a Case Study to Disentangle Trust Dynamics and Trust-Building Mechanisms

Trust in Specialised Courts: The Unified Patent Court (UPC) as a Case Study to Disentangle Trust Dynamics and Trust-Building Mechanisms In this article, we argue that trust in specialised courts is under-researched and that it is desirable to get a better understanding of trust dynamics in the context of specialised courts. We suggest that the Unified Patent Court (UPC) is an interesting case study for this purpose. The UPC is a specialised patent court, which opened its doors in June 2023. It deals with disputes arising from the so-called ‘unitary patents’ and European patents. Interestingly, while the establishment of the UPC was aimed at centralising such disputes, during a transitional period, national courts may also still be competent to deal with disputes related to European patents. During this period, a possibility to opt out of the jurisdiction of the UPC exists, but only for European patents. Although the UPC is relatively unknown, in our opinion, its recent creation and features turn it into an excellent case study to analyse trust in courts. First, the UPC is a newly established court allowing us to examine its different stages of operation and the evolution of trust dynamics. Second, the UPC is a highly specialised court with local, regional and central divisions, which creates an opportunity to study trust dynamics in a multi-level, specialised system. Finally, we will be able to observe how trust dynamics play out in the choice to litigate before a national court or before the UPC. The article concludes by offering several propositions focusing in particular on the role of judges as boundary spanners and trust-building mechanisms in a judicial context.