The Past, Present and Future of Online Dispute Resolution

Описание: A Current Legal Problems Lecture delivered on Thursday 11 February 2021.


Speaker: Professor Orna Rabinovich-Einy (University of Haifa)
Chair: The Rt. Hon. Lord Hodge (Deputy President of the Supreme Court)



About the Lecture
The lecture will describe the evolution of the field of online dispute resolution over the course of the last 25 years, from its rise in the mid-1990s in the e-commerce setting, through its spread to additional arenas and disputes in the early 2000s, to its growing adoption in the courts, pre- and post-COVID-19. The spread of online proceedings has created a new dispute resolution landscape, opening new opportunities for enhancing access to justice, procedural justice, and equal outcomes for parties. At the same time, the very qualities that make online proceedings more efficient, accessible and fair can also present barriers to access, challenge procedural fairness and produce biased outcomes. The lecture will explore the impact of the shift online of dispute resolution processes on our justice system and the prospects for addressing some of our longstanding challenges: the access to justice crisis, the impact of power imbalances between disputants and the perils of private justice.



About the Speaker
Orna Rabinovich-Einy is a law professor at the University of Haifa. Her areas of expertise are online dispute resolution (ODR), alternative dispute resolution (ADR), and civil procedure, with research focusing on the impact of technology on dispute resolution, the relationship between formal and informal justice systems, and dispute resolution system design. She has published widely in these areas, including a book (co-authored with Professor Ethan Katsh) entitled "Digital Justice: Technology and the Internet of Disputes," published by Oxford University Press. Rabinovich-Einy holds a J.S.D. degree from Columbia University. She was admitted to the Israel (1998) and N.Y. (2001) Bar, and was certified as a mediator in New York (2003).