ADR through Online Arbitration – The Future of Justice

Individuals, groups, and organizations have solely relied on the court system to resolve disputes for quite a long time. On the contrary, many people today are able solve their disagreements successfully without involving the courts. Mechanisms through which disputes are resolved outside the court system are known as Alternative Dispute Resolutions. In order to make Alternative Dispute Resolutions less expensive and more efficient, modern technologies can be integrated into the dispute resolution process. This book specifically focuses on Online Arbitration procedures as one of the methods of Alternative Dispute Resolutions. Whenever they encounter disagreements in transactions, business to business (B2B) organizations prefer Online Arbitration, also known as Electronic Arbitration (hereto referred to as Online Arbitration) to other mechanisms of resolving disputes to come into agreements. This is because Online Arbitration allows those involved in the dispute to choose a professional they both trust to help solve their disagreement, while at the same time ensuring that all the necessary procedures are followed to the latter. Moreover, disputes that arise from business to business transactions are often resolved faster, and parties easily get access to relevant documents from their locations and at any time whenever Online Arbitration is used to resolve disputes. Currently, no legal framework exists to help guide Online Arbitration procedures. For this reason, rules that have traditionally governed commercial arbitration are applied in arbitrations that are conducted online. Although the existing rules for conventional commercial adjudication outlines rules that also take care of the online version, online arbitration requires rules that are specifically designed for it due to its unique features. A legal framework for online arbitration must specify how technology will be used in the dispute resolution process, how performance of notifications will be carried out, and how acknowledgement of receipt will be granted. Furthermore, it should state the obligation of the parties to maintain high ethical standards during the dispute resolution process and allow parties to freely select the most appropriate extra-judicial mechanisms for faster and easier enforcement of the proposed ruling.