Dispute Systems Design: An Analytic Framework

Janet Martinez - Stanford Law School, Gould Center for Negotiation and Mediation

Systems Design for Global & Regional Redress

What does might be some goals of an ODR system?:

1. efficiency
2. accessibility
3. trust building in e-commerce
4. transparency and fairness
5. information flow and structured communication
6. enforceability
7. predictable and consistent
8. development of norms and precedents (maybe)
9. satisfaction by users
10. prevention / early resolution
11. party control over process choice
12. flexible for diverse cultures, languages, laws, political environments
13. how are goals reconciled and prioritized

Important Process Questions

1. What are the incentives for players to play?
   What is the system's interaction with the formal legal system?
2. Who organizes it? Public? Public/private?
3. When does process start, and who decides?
4. How can we use technology to structure the communiction and shape the dialogue?

Dr. Mohammed S. Abdel Wahab - Professor of Private International Law, Cairo University, Egypt

Towards a Global ODR Culture: System Design between Integration and Fragmentation

• Glocalization: adapting global standards to local conditions
• M2M commerce: mobile to mobile transactions.
• In Africa and other places, mobiles already used for things like banking
• Building trust in ODR system requires government support
• Many disputes are not litigated or arbitrated because of low value. ODR offers advantages over litigation to deal with these disputes.
• Develop standards for accreditation of ODR providers.
• Technology is the driving force of globalization.

Mitch Chiahara, Global Business Dialogue on eSociety (GBDe)

• GBD is worldwide initiative formed to promote cross-border transactions
• Accredition or trustmark framework for Asian states

Colin Rule: We need private sector on ODR, so it can scale, innovate and ultimately work.

Colin Rule: DR has heavy cultural component varies widely by country. The eBay protection model (buy through us and we'll protect you) does not work in China or Korea. In those countries, purchaster pays money into escrow and goods are sent to purchaser. Only after purchaser expresses satisfaction will the funds be released to seller. Nobody trusts the eBay model.

CR: ODR is the 'how' and not the 'what'. We are trying to achieve DR solutions and build protections.