• To resolve disputes and conflicts occured in cyberspace by the methods such as online negotiaion, mediation, or arbitration.Abbreviation of Online Dispute Resolution.
• To resolve disputes and conflicts occured in the real world using online communication methods such as e-mails, chat, or TV conferences。
• To prevent these disputes and conflicts online.
• The main advantages of ODR are: to reduce cost and time for resolution; to correspond to complex cross border disputes.
One of the objectives of ODR is conflict resolution. Here the different approaches are described, but they may be slightly different from Japanese approaches. The basic approaches derived from ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution). A third party netural are present to move the parties in conflict forward to resolution. It is important that both parties agree to go through any ADR process.
ADR processes have face to face communication, in contrast, ODR often lacks such communication. Its asynchronous nature gives time to think and reflect and many parties do not want to have F2F meetings. One of the reasons for hiring lawyers is from this reason. ODR as ADR is not recommended for all types of disputes and conflicts. The conflicts with criminal factors such as violent conflicts which needs an immediate attention, the conflicts involving children abuse, or serious frauds need to be referred to law enforcements.
Nowadays, there are organizations which propose to have certification programs for ODR professionals, but it is not clear why it unifies the professional level. Because ODR professionals have to have a deep understanding on cultural, racial, linguistic differences among parties, not academic knowledge but experiences may be crucial for this profession.
• Negotiation・Facilitation：
Negotiation is the process to persuade the others in order to realize one's own needs, wants, and desires. We are always negotiating in one sense. Children negotiate with their parents in order to stay up late. We negotiate with car dealers to get the best deal. It is said that the Japanese way of negotiation is very different from the Western way. "Nemawashi" is the way Japanese uses in order to avoid confrontation at the formal meetings. They try to consult each parties involved prior to an action and get consensus. The results attained by negotiation process, however, is not legally binding without contracts.
Parties in conflict are many of the times emotional and there often in an imbalance of power. These prevents the parties to move forward. Computer technology can help parties to move forward to resolution. The ODR services provided by SquareTrade start from such computer programs. If disputes are not solved, parties can ask to have human mediators.
• Mediation：
"Mediation" has a profound philosophical meaning. According to Prof. Hubert Dreyfus, the UC Berkeley Philosophy professor, the 19th century Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard reasoned that mediation is a crucial process for mental and psychological human development. We are all born as reactive and do not think thoroughtly as a child. Mediation can transform such childish nature into adulthood. Mediation is a process of constant critical analysis of self. In other words, mediators help parties who are very reactive to reflect their actions, thoughts, and emotions and help people to see their situations in totally new viewpoints. This profession can not be easily mastered. It has various aspects of other professions such as therapists, counselors, and mentors and techniques, skills, and tactics are necessary as well as expertise and experiences in the field. Online mediators need additional skills and tactics to lead the parties to mediate.
There is a series of "rounin" story featuring "Yorozuya Heihachiro" written by Shuhei Fujisawa. The samurai starts mediator business and tries to settle the disputes. The big difference between him and the present mediators is he often takes a side in the end. In this sense, he is not a neutral facilitator.
In mediation, legal reasoning is not necessary and confidentiality is strictly kept as long as parties are not engaging in criminal activities or have violence. Therefore, people are not informed how and why the parties reached an agreement. In this aspect not all types of conflicts are suitable for mediation.
• Arbitration:
Arbitration has more legal binding power than other ADR processes. An arbitrator gives an awards after weighing the cases of both sides. It is similar to litigation, but arbitration is not affected by precedents. Arbitrators does not give reasons for the awards and the process is confidential as mediation. Thus it is not suitable for all types of conflicts. Some of the cases are indisbensable for creation of new laws and regulations. Those cases need to be filed in courts rather than settled by arbitration.
It also has criticisms because mandatory arbitration clauses are creating the power imbalance between the conflicting parties. To reduce the number of litigation, insurance companies, hospitals, and credit card companies include the clause in their contracts. People sign because without contracts they can not be covered by insurance policies, they can not be seen by doctors, and they can not have credit cards. And it is said that the big companies and hospitals often have their friendly repeating arbitrators who give awards to their institutions.
• Others:
In the proceeding called Med-Arb a mediator becomes an arbitrator when mediation does not work. There are various other ADR processes such as mini-trials and early neutral evaluation in the US.which can be introduced to ODR process.