A leading consortium of academics, business executives, law firms and dispute resolution professionals are collaborating on a new and exciting online dispute resolution initiative, according to a recent article, "Moving Arbitration Online: The Next Frontier" (bit.ly/14IH5xO) by Colin Rule and Beth Trent of the International Institute of Conflict Resolution (CPR).
John J. Upchurch
“CPR has partnered with Modria (Rule's online dispute resolution technology company) …. to build the first end-to-end online arbitration process that fully complies with the requirements of the New York Convention," the authors say. "This platform can work fully online, or hybrid online-offline, and it offers robust document management and integrated payments. CPR has developed customized, streamlined rules to govern this online process, and all cases will be heard by CPR neutrals with the same procedural protections and conflict checks that are found in CPR's face-to-face administered processes.”
This is a looming development with unlimited potential. It represents the marriage of the refined, successful systems developed by e-Bay and the sophisticated, seasoned arbitration protocol refined by CPR over the past twenty years, flavored with the lessons learned through the ICANN experience with domain names.
This is a serious initiative. As an ICANN arbitrator and CPR panelist for many years, I am going to be following this with great anticipation. Stay tuned.
John J. Upchurch