Online Dispute Resolution-The Emperor's New Clothes? Benefits and Pitfalls of Online Dispute Resolution and its Application to Commercial Arbitration

The question this paper addresses is how can IT support the resolution of disputes through arbitration and mediation. The first and second parts will examine the benefits of Online Dispute Resolution, some of the pitfalls it may present and how these can be avoided. The third part will then look at one of the more formidable obstaclesthe issue of security of communications. The fourth part will examine the use of Online Dispute Resolution in one particular sector, its use by the traditional arbitral institutions. Much has been written about the application of Online Dispute Resolution in other areas than commercial arbitration, such as consumer e-commerce and domain name disputes, where its use has been on the whole successful. Arbitration being a fact-finding and decision making process seems ideally suited to IT. It is therefore interesting to see to what extent Online Dispute Resolution is used in practice. The conclusion from this examination is that, although some IT is being used and increasingly so, this is still a developing field. This paper will conclude by discussing the reasons for this relatively slow take-up of Online Dispute Resolution in the field of commercial arbitration and by speculating about future developments in this area.