Class Of Disputes Research Articles

Supporting Dispute Handling in E-Commerce Transactions, a Framework and Related Methodologies

An E-commerce transaction is a means to conduct particular commercial activities using the global digital E-commerce infrastructure. We concentrate here on business to customer (B-to-C) E-commerce transactions. These transactions are based on protocols offered by the global infrastructure, primarily the Internet. Using electronic means to do business can greatly improve the efficiency of the business transactions. It, however, poses some problems that were rarely considered to be important before. One class of problems is caused by the behavior of untrusted participants. For reasons such as dishonesty, disputes may arise. In the general case, when a dispute arises an untrustworthy participant may have an arbitrary behavior, and may or may not cooperate with the dispute handling process. In this paper, we study one class of disputes where the participants have some limited willingness to cooperate, and the causes or demands by the initiators are directly related to the actions in the transactions in which the disputes arise. To this end, we first establish a correctness criterion by extending the existing notion of transactional atomicity to a broader context where the behavior of untrustworthy players is taken into consideration. We then introduce the concept of a dispute, and the difficulties to handle it caused by abnormal behavior of players. We introduce a strategy, benefit set, based on which a solution is built to circumvent that behavior. Due to the special features of E-commerce transactions, we propose a two-tier arbiter structure as the main mechanism in our solution.

Employment Arbitration and Litigation: An Empirical Comparison

Policy debate rages over mandatory employment arbitration. Using a unique database of American Arbitration Association employment dispute awards, this article compares court-tried employment cases and arbitrated employment claims. It compares adjudicated and arbitrated outcomes in the class of disputes most often the subject of arbitration, non-civil rights employment claims. For higher paid employees, we find little evidence that arbitrated outcomes materially differ from trial outcomes. Employee win rates in both forums exceed 55% and median awards in both forums exceed $65,000. We find no statistically significant differences between arbitration and litigation in employee win rates or in median or mean award levels. These results are consistent with the belief that lower pay employees lack systematic, realistic access to court. We also report evidence that arbitrated disputes conclude more quickly than litigated disputes.

The Outcomes of Military Buildups: Minor States vs. Major Powers

Virtually all of the empirical work concerning the general impact of mutual military buildups on the escalation of militarized disputes to war addresses the impact of these buildups on major states. Given the fact that better data are available now than when many of the first studies were conducted, the empirical question of whether the escalation of disputes between major and minor states follows similar patterns is addressed here. This also avoids the problem of our assuming that major states reflect the whole system, without systematic evidence that indicates that such an assumption is valid. The study builds upon earlier work by looking at the consequences of military buildups for all Militarized Interstate Disputes, and examines the effects for different classes of disputes (those between major states, those between minor states, and mixed disputes). The findings indicate that we cannot simply generalize from major state experiences to minor state relations: there are clear patterns of escalation, and there are definite commonalities and distinct differences in these patterns. Mutual military buildups increase the chance of escalation for both major and minor state disputes, but not for mixed disputes. Territorial disputes are much more likely to escalate than other types of disputes under virtually all circumstances. And it appears that the period after World War II is truly different from previous eras. There is no pattern of escalation among major states, and the patterns of escalation in the two other classes of disputes are substantially altered after the war. The author argues that in order to explain both similarities and differences, it is necessary to refrain from placing theoretical approaches in direct opposition to each other. Rather, we must look at the interplay between objective threat, cognitive psychology, and the impact of constructivism on both our theory and practice in politics.

Asphalt Works Subcontracting Disputes in Large Construction Programs

Subcontracting is a common, and sometimes warranted, practice on large construction projects. However, it is also well recognized that disputes are likely to develop between subcontractors and general contractors in trying to achieve target objectives of cost, quality, and time. This paper tackles quality- and time-related disputes that are peculiar to the case of subcontracting asphalt works under a large construction program, such as that of a new airport construction. In particular, it reports on disagreements regarding the achieved thickness and surface smoothness of the constructed asphalt concrete layer, and on activity-interfacing and delay-attribution issues resulting from improper contractual and scheduling practices. Factors believed to be relevant to both classes of disputes are identified, and analyses are offered to pinpoint significant anomalies. Finally, arguments are developed and recommendations given, that reflect best industry practices whose application could help minimize the likeliho...

A SAFE AND SCALABLE PAYMENT INFRASTRUCTURE FOR TRADE OF ELECTRONIC CONTENT

BARTER (a Backbone ARchitecture for Trade of ElectRonic content) is a payment infrastructure that facilitates digital content trade over an open network. BARTER is designed to operate over a large-scale, global and heterogeneous communication network. The BARTER protocols address two vital requirements, neglected from existing electronic commerce systems: scalability and transactional efficiency. These protocols possess strong properties such as delivery atomicity, agreement validation and the ability to resolve several classes of disputes. BARTER's novelty is twofold: First, BARTER servers are not required to perform expensive cryptographic operations such as commitment verification; commitments are cross-verified by the parties themselves, thus reducing the overhead of online transaction processing by orders of magnitude. Consequently, BARTER can serve as an efficient online/offline clearing infrastructure. Second, BARTER integrates scalability considerations into several system components (the authentication subsystem, the account management subsystem, and the maintenance of global data) that are likely to suffer service degradation in a world-wide setting. In addressing these issues, BARTER takes into account the inherent asynchronous, unreliable, insecure and failure-prone environment assumptions. We contend that by employing service distribution, BARTER is expected to scale well, meeting the demands of a world-wide setting, over which it is intended to operate.

The United Nations, the Superpowers, and Proliferation

Although nuclear weapons are likely to spread to small and medium powers, the main problem for inter national security will be the effect of proliferation on the avoidance of nuclear war between the superpowers. It is therefore from their vantage point that this essay assesses the role of international organizations in a nuclear-armed world. A new class of disputes caused by violations of IAEA safe guards and permissible withdrawals from the NPT is destined to be placed on the Security Council agenda. These disputes, moreover, may provide the superpowers with the opportunity to cement their common interests in controlling the effects of proliferation. Further periodic Soviet-American confrontations of nuclear-crisis proportions are to be expected, albeit in a new political context complicated by proliferation. The UN can help resolve these, as it has past crises, by pro viding an organ of last resort, registering, implementing particular provisions of these agreements, and above all cap italizing on them to advance new resources for the promotion of international security. All of these roles could be better played if the UN established an International Nuclear Security Planning Group, to devise, plan for, and supervise the execution of measures which command great support— and superpower agreement. Anything more radical, un fortunately, would require a significant upsurge of insecurity which could only result from a boundary event such as the first use of nuclear weapons.

The Use of Neutral Waters by Belligerents

During the past century great progress has been made in international law along two lines: (1) in the extension of the practice of international arbitration, and (2) in the development of a clearer conception of the rights and duties of neutrals. Both movements tend toward peace, the one in avoiding war by the judicial determination of the matter in dispute, and the other in limiting the area of warlike operations after war has actually been declared and in restricting hostilities to the original parties to the dispute. The Hague Peace Conference of 1899 marked the formal adoption by the nations of the earth of the principle of arbitration of certain classes of disputes, but this conference felt that its work was incomplete so long as there was such wide divergence of opinion as to the rights and duties of neutrals. Before adjournment, therefore, a resolution, was passed expressing the hope that this subject might be taken under consideration by a second conference in the near future. In President Roosevelt's proposal for a second conference, issued by Secretary Hay, October 21, 1904, this is one of the three subjects suggested for consideration, and special attention is called to one aspect of it, namely, “the treatment due to refugee belligerent ships in neutral ports.” This aspect of the subject derives special importance from the events of the Russo-Japanese War, and it is to this aspect of the subject that this discussion will be directed.