Relational justice: mediation and ODR through the World Wide Web

ODR means "Online Dispute Resolution". Dialogue, negotiation and mediation are coming back as sources of contemporary law. We introduce in this paper two concepts and two related projects. We define the concepts of "relational law" and "relational justice". And, at the same time, we describe how to put them in place from a social and technological point of view. Therefore, we introduce two concrete applications: (i) the Catalan White Book on Mediation, a large project to assemble the required social and legal knowledge to draft a general statute on mediation (Catalan Government); (ii) the Ontomedia Project, a semantically-driven platform allowing end-users to negotiate and mediate their conflicts in several domains (family, commerce, environment, health care, administration…). The paper describes the state of the art of ODR services, and proposes some strategies for legal electronic institutions. A middle-out theoretical approach and a mediation core-ontology are briefly described. We situate these two projects within the next generation of Semantic Web services, and the so-called Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 developments

Conflict resolution in virtual locations

The growing use of telematic ways of communication and of the new developments of Artificial Intelligence, brought along new ways of doing business, now in an electronic format, and requiring a new legal approach. Thus, there is an obvious need for legal changes and adaptations, not only concerning a new approach of traditional legal institutes, but also concerning a need for new developments in procedural means. Transactions are now undertaken in fractions of seconds, through the telematic networks, requiring more efficient ways for solving conflicts; on the other hand, the fact that we must now consider commercial transactions totally undertaken within an electronic environment (“online transactions”) leads to an obligation of rethinking the ways of solving disputes, that will inevitably arise from electronic commerce. It is an important change already taking place, pointing out to various ways of alternative dispute resolution and, among all these ways, letting us already perceive different possibilities of using the new technologies in order to reach faster and more efficient ways (still also “fair”) of solving commercial disputes. It is a whole new evolution towards a growing use not only alternative dispute resolution, but also, towards the so-called on-line dispute resolution.The work described in this paper is included in TIARAC - Telematics and Artificial Intelligence in Alternative Conflict Resolution Project (PTDC/JUR/71354/2006), which is a research project supported by FCT (Science & Technology Foundation), Portugal

Using Toulmin Argumentation to develop an Online Dispute Resolution Environment

Our goal is to model reasoning in discretionary legal domains. To do so, we use Knowledge Discovery from Database Techniques. However there are obstacles to this approach, including difficulties in generating explanations once conclusions have been inferred, difficulties associated with the collection of sufficient data from past cases and difficulties associated with integrating two vastly different paradigms. Toulmin’s treatise on the uses of argument can be gainfully employed to construct legal decision support systems in discretionary domains. We show how we can use Toulmin’s approach to build such systems with examples taken from the domains of eligibility for legal aid, evaluation of eyewitness evidence, family law, refugee law and sentencing. We then show how Toulmin Argument Structures can be developed to construct an Online Dispute Resolution environment that allows for determining BATNAs, exchanging opinions and providing advice about tradeoffs

Online dispute resolution: an artificial intelligence perspective

Litigation in court is still the main dispute resolution mode. However, given the amount and characteristics of the new disputes, mostly arising out of electronic contracting, courts are becoming slower and outdated. Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) recently emerged as a set of tools and techniques, supported by technology, aimed at facilitating conflict resolution. In this paper we present a critical evaluation on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based techniques in ODR. In order to fulfill this goal, we analyze a set of commercial providers (in this case twenty four) and some research projects (in this circumstance six). Supported by the results so far achieved, a new approach to deal with the problem of ODR is proposed, in which we take on some of the problems identified in the current state of the art in linking ODR and AI.The work described in this paper is included in TIARAC - Telematics and Artificial Intelligence in Alternative Conflict Resolution Project (PTDC/JUR/71354/2006), which is a research project supported by FCT (Science & Technology Foundation), Portugal. The work of Davide Carneiro is also supported by a doctoral grant by FCT (SFRH/BD/64890/2009).Acknowledgments. The work described in this paper is included in TIARAC - Telematics and Artificial Intelligence in Alternative Conflict Resolution Project (PTDC/JUR/71354/2006), which is a research project supported by FCT (Science & Technology Foundation), Portugal. The work of Davide Carneiro is also supported by a doctoral grant by FCT (SFRH/BD/64890/2009)

Developing dynamic conflict resolution models based on the interpretation of personal conflict styles

Proceedings of the 15th Portuguese conference on Artificial Intelligence - (EPIA 2011), Lisboa, Portugal, 2011.Conflict resolution is a classic field of Social Science research. However, with conflicts now also emerging in virtual environments, a new field of research has been developing in which Artificial Intelligence and particularly Ambient Intelligence are interesting. As result, the field of Online Dispute Resolution emerged as the use (in part or entirely) of technological tools to solve disputes. In this paper we focus on developing conflict resolution models that are able to adapt strategies in real time according to changes in the personal conflict styles of the parties. To do it we follow a novel approach in which an intelligent environment supports the lifecycle of the conflict resolution model with the provision of important context knowledge. The presented framework is able to react to important changes in the context of interaction, resulting in a conflict resolution approach that is able to perceive the parties and consequently achieve better outcomes.The work described in this paper is included in TIARAC - Telematics and Artificial Intelligence in Alternative Conflict Resolution Project (PTDC/JUR/71354/2006), which is a research project supported by FCT (Science & Technology Foundation), Portugal

Mediating planning disputes : opportunities, experiences and challenges

There is no dearth of academic research into the apparent benefits of mediation as a tool for the resolution of planning disputes. Several eminent lawyers have proffered their support for the use of this alternative dispute resolution mechanism within the UK planning system. Further, formalized mediation regimes have been introduced into the respective planning systems of a number of international jurisdictions, with apparent success; for example, in Australia, 34% of all planning disputes are now resolved via a form of mediation. Notwithstanding this apparent evidence-base, in England and Wales a substantial number of property developers, local authorities and planning professionals continue to believe that mediation is not useful or appropriate as a mechanism for resolving planning disputes and, despite early indications that a formalized mediation regime would be developed and adopted in England and Wales, to date no such regime has been implemented . This present research paper seeks to examine why this apparent 'mediation paradox' continues to exist and critically evaluates whether or not there does indeed exist a 'business case' for the introduction of a formal mediation regime within the UK planning system

Legal electronic institutions and ONTOMEDIA: dialogue, inventio, and relational justice scenarios

Since the seminal work by Perelman, Olbrechts-Tyteca, Toulmin, Ong, Giuliani and many others in late fifties and sixties, dialogue and argumentation have increasingly been at the center of philosophical discussions. Modelization of arguments and "argumentation schemes" constitute one of the main domains within the AI & Law field. The construction of Legal Electronic Institutions (LEI), and Ontomedia, an Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) platform in the context of the research carried out within the Catalan White Book on Mediation, has enhanced the discussion about fundamental issues on the theoretical approach taken in building such Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 tools. In this paper, I will address the question of how the content of ancient stasis, ekphrasis and inventio may be captured and reelaborated to define their theoretical backbones. I will call "relational justice" the conceptual legal framework in which Semantic Web strategies can be nested to offer a better user-centered service