Has Online ADR Got a Future?

Every few years there is a wave of enthusiasm for online alternative dispute resolution. One can see one starting in the mid-1990s, and another in 1999-2000, and maybe a wavelet in 2004 or so. Some international bodies are thinking about it again, according to discussion at the ABA’s Business Law spring meeting over the past weekend.

Osgoode Hall Law School has just got a major gift to set up an online ADR centre, the largest in the world, according to the press story.

Can this be made to work? I know that pure numbers-based saw-offs can be automated, but can one get beyond that? Is the dispute resolution practice of WIPO or CIRA for domain names a useful precedent? eBay used to run Square Trade — did that not die? Fade away? (maybe it’s thriving…) How about the Better Business Bureau’s bbbonline?

I’m a believer in ADR generally, both mediation and arbitration (which are quite different in principle) but remain to be persuaded that they have widespread application online.

Want to persuade me? What principles am I overlooking, what successes am I ignoring?