The UNCITRAL Arbitration Program

The new Online Dispute Resolution Working Group convened by Uncitral represents a major opportunity to move forward on the creation of a cross-border system for providing redress in Internet E-commerce disputes. For the first time in the history of alternative dispute resolution, there is a transparent, public dialogue with representatives from every major country aimed squarely at the creation of a world-wide dispute resolution system.  This is unquestionably an exciting opportunity.  Come discuss the progress of the Working Group with some of the people making it happen: John Singer from the US Federal Trade Commission, Vikki Rogers from the Institute of International Commercial Law, and Colin Rule of Modria.com.

Presented by:

Colin Rule is Director of Online Dispute Resolution for eBay and PayPal. He has worked in the dispute resolution field for more than a decade as a mediator, trainer, and consultant. He is currently Co-Chair of the Advisory Board of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution at UMass-Amherst and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School.

Colin co-founded Online Resolution, one of the first online dispute resolution (ODR) providers, in 1999 and served as its CEO (2000) and President. In 2002 Colin co-founded the Online Public Disputes Project, which applied ODR to multiparty, public disputes. Previously, Colin was General Manager of Mediate.com, the largest online resource for the dispute resolution field. Colin also worked for several years with the National Institute for Dispute Resolution in Washington, D.C. and the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, MA.

Colin has presented and trained throughout Europe and North America for organizations including the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Department of State, the International Chamber of Commerce, and the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution. He has also lectured and taught at UMass-Amherst, Stanford, MIT, Creighton University, Southern Methodist University, the University of Ottawa, and Brandeis University.

Colin is the author of Online Dispute Resolution for Business, published by Jossey-Bass in September 2002. He has contributed more than 50 articles to prestigious ADR publications such as Consensus, The Fourth R, ACResolution Magazine, and Peace Review. He currently serves as a contributing editor on eBay Radio and PayPal radio, and posts regularly to the Chatter, eBay's blog about the company and the community (in addition to his personal blog at Stanford). He holds a Master's degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government in conflict resolution and technology, a graduate certificate in dispute resolution from UMass-Boston, a B.A. in Peace Studies from Haverford College, and he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Eritrea from 1995-1997.

Zbynek Loebl specialises in the field of Internet law and legal aspects of ICT and technology projects. He has focused on on-line dispute resolution in recent years. He is particularly interested in developing cross-border ODR infrastructure for e-commerce disputes and he proposed to develop an international ODR communication standard called ECRI (e-commerce resolution interchange). He is also active at UNCITRAL WG III which has been developing ODR Rules for cross-border ODR.

Zbynek managed a project on establishing a global centre for domain name dispute resolution (ADR.EU) of the Czech Arbitration Court. ADR.EU is an online UDRP provider as well as ODR provider for .eu disputes and .cz disputes. Before focusing on ODR, Zbynek has represented large Czech and international companies and public authorities in the negotiation for significant IT contracts in the Czech Republic and abroad and was active in all aspects of Internet law. He is a Panellist of ADR.EU for disputes related to .eu domain names and in standard arbitration proceedings. He is an active member of the IP Constituency of ICANN.

John Andrew Singer is International Counsel in the Office of International Affairs of the Federal Trade Commission.  In the Office of International Affairs, Mr. Singer focuses on on-line dispute resolution and cross-border enforcement issues.  He is a member of the United States delegation to United Nations Commission on International Trade and Law Working Group Three, which is working towards developing a cross-border dispute resolution system for e-commerce.  He also serves as the leader of the Enforcement Working Group of the International Consumer Protection Enforcement Network.

Mr. Singer has a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a M.A. in Economics and J.D. from the University of Maryland.  Before joining the Office of International Affairs, Mr. Singer was in the FTC’s Office of the General Counsel Office where he focused on appellate litigation.  Before that Mr. Singer was counsel to the FTC’s Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection and an attorney in that Bureau’s Division of Marketing Practices.  Prior to coming to the Commission, Mr. Singer was a partner in a large Baltimore law firm. 

Mr. Singer is a member of the Commission’s E-Discovery Task Force.  He also is an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University School of Law, where he teaches Trial Advocacy.

Vikki Rogers, is the Director of the Institute of International Commercial Law at Pace Law School since 2008. She maintains the award-winning online CISG Database.  Ms. Rogers has published and advised in the areas of international sales law and online dispute resolution (ODR) and is regularly invited to speak on such topics. Her current publications focus on international sales law, international consumer law, online dispute resolution (for domestic and cross-border disputes), and electronic and mobile commerce.  Ms. Rogers advocated for the adoption of the topic of ODR to a Working Group at UNCITRAL, and is an active participant and invited expert for the ODR Working Group that was established in 43rd session of UNCITRAL. Prior to her position as Director at Pace, she worked as an associate at Mazur, Carp & Rubin, PC, and Shearman & Sterling (New York and Germany), focusing her practice on construction law arbitration and litigation, both domestic and international. She was also an international case manager at the ICDR at the AAA in New York, and has worked as a research fellow at the Universities of Heidelberg and Cologne in Germany.  She has taught International Arbitration at Villanova Law School and Introduction to US Law at the University of Heidelberg.  She currently teaches a CISG seminar at Pace Law School and the International Arbitration Practicum at Fordham Law School.  Ms. Rogers is a member of the Arbitration Committee of the NYC Bar Association and an Editor of the UNCITRAL CISG Digest [2011 edition].  She earned a BA from Syracuse University, a J.D. from Pace Law School, and a Master of Studies in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School. To dialogue with Vikki Rogers by e-mail, click here. 

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