Abstract
The increase of people’s activity in the cyberspace results in a need to provide dispute resolution services online. Even though ODR is about 15 years old, until today no provider of such services has been successful in creating universal dispute resolution system. ODR has got many advantages over traditional ADR and state court litigation. They include low cost, flexibility, avoidance of jurisdiction and choice of law problems and above all speed. However there are also disadvantages, which prevent Internet users from putting trust in this method of dispute resolution. They include issues concerning authenticity, confidentiality, accessibility and due process rights. The first serious attempts to establish ODR systems were initiated by academics. They did not last long though. The most successful attempts include eBay and ICANN systems. They have, however, a limited scope of application. The first one deals only with simple, one-issue, low cost, e-commerce, consumer transaction and its outcome, at least formally, is not binding. The other is praised for effective enforcement without reference to state courts, but it deals only with Internet domain disputes and provides no other remedies than assigning those domains to the winning party. Overall ODR is destined to be successful sooner or later.
Highlights
The World Wide Web was invented in 19891 and in 1992 an online commerce ban was levied.2 The Internet has forever changed peoples’ conceptions of human interaction.3 Modern societies have moved step-bystep onto the Internet
The number of domain names went from 2 million in 1997 to over 30 million in 2001.5 The value of e-commerce in the United States alone grew from 33 billion dollars in 1999 to 182 billion dollars in 2009
There are even international competitions in online dispute resolution held for law students worldwide
Summary
The World Wide Web (www) was invented in 19891 and in 1992 an online commerce ban was levied. The Internet has forever changed peoples’ conceptions of human interaction. Modern societies have moved step-bystep onto the Internet. 4 E Katsh, ‘Online Dispute Resolution: Some Lesson from the E-Commerce Revolution’ (2001) 28(4) Northern Kentucky Law Review 810. It has its traditional weaknesses, such as that it is very lengthy and expensive, but it does not suit e-commerce disputes very well due to jurisdiction issues and the potential geographical distance between parties. There are even international competitions in online dispute resolution held for law students worldwide.. 11 RI Turner, ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution in Cyberspace: there is more on the line than just getting “online”’ (2000) 7 ILSA Journal of International & Comparative Law 133, 135-. It is unlikely that large international commercial transactions will be submitted to ODR, even though parties to disputes arising from such transactions will make use of technology improvements.
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