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38 U. Tol. L. Rev. 19 (2006-2007)
Ten Years of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR): Looking at the Past and Constructing the Future

handle is hein.journals/utol38 and id is 33 raw text is: ARTICLES
TEN YEARS OF ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (ODR):
LOOKING AT THE PAST AND
CONSTRUCTING THE FUTURE*
Ethan Katsh ** and Leah Wing***
I. INTRODUCTION
T HIS symposium celebrates the fifth anniversary of one of the most
interesting law-related uses of the Internet, the International Competition for
Online Dispute Resolution (ICODR).1 This year is also the tenth anniversary
of online dispute resolution (ODR). In 1996, the first articles about ODR
appeared in a law review,2 the National Center for Automated Information
* This article is a product of research supported by National Science Foundation award
#0429297. National Science Foundation, Process Technology for Achieving Government Online
Dispute Resolution, http://www.fastlane.nsf.gov/servlet/showaward?award=0429297 (last visited
Aug. 22, 2006). Our particular thanks to Professor Benjamin Davis, founder of the International
Competition for Online Dispute Resolution (ICODR), for organizing the Symposium Enhancing
Worldwide Understanding through Online Dispute Resolution at the University of Toledo College
of Law, April 22, 2006. We are also most grateful to the National Mediation Board (NMB), to
Board Chair Harry Hoglander, to Director of ADR Services Daniel Rainey, and to the mediators
and staff of NMB who have spent many hours working with us on this project. This article reports
on a project requiring collaboration between members of the Departments of Legal Studies and
Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts and we have had the benefit of extraordinary
computer science colleagues, Lee Osterweil, Norman Sondheimer, Lori Clarke, Alexander Wise,
and Matt Mazzilli. Many of the ideas in this article derive from conversations with our Department
of Legal Studies colleague Alan Gaitenby and we are most appreciative of his work with us.
** Professor of Legal Studies and Director of the Center for Information Technology and
Dispute Resolution, University of Massachusetts Amherst, http://www.odr.info/katsh.php. e-mail:
katsh@legal.umass.edu.
*** Lecturer, Department of Legal Studies, and Director of Dispute Resolution, Center for
Information Technology and Dispute Resolution, University of Massachusetts Amherst, e-mail:
lwing@legal.umass.edu.
1. The Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution, http://www.odr.info/icodr.
php (last visited June 1, 2006).
2. Ethan Katsh, Dispute Resolution in Cyberspace, 28 CONN. L. REv. 953 (1996); E. Casey
Lide, ADR and Cyberspace: The Role of Alternative Dispute Resolution in Online Commerce,
Intellectual Property and Defamation, 12 OHIO ST. J. ON Disp. RESOL. 193 (1996).

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