About the Conference

The 2012 ODR Forum 2012 will be held in Prague on 27-29 June 2012.

This meeting of the Forum is the 11th annual congress on online dispute resolution. The Prague venue will present the current wide picture of online dispute resolution globally and its best practices, from national and cross-border ODR systems in the most developed countries to mediation of disputes in the poorest or most violent parts of the world. Special focus of the Prague venue will be on the continued preparatory work on the design and development of a global resolution system to handle cross-border, low value disputes. Principal initiatives include the preparation of Rules for cross-border ODR by UNCITRAL, the development of cross-border ODR infrastructure connecting ODR providers in different parts of the world (ODR Data Exchange), current policy development by the European Commission, Organization of American States (OAS) and others.

The Prague ODR Forum will serve to bring together interested parties from the Internet industries,civil society,governments, the judiciary,banks and payment systems,consumer groups,the legal profession,ODR proponents,and the academic and technical communities for three days of in-depth  discussion of possible designs to create efficient alternative dispute resolution systems which may be used to resolve both transnational and local e-commerce disputes. The intention is to finish the forum with general consensus around the establishment of the institutional framework of the future cross-border ODR system.   Importantly, the ICANN meeting will be held in Prague at the same time as the ODR Forum (24-29 June) – see www.icann.org. Both venues are free of charge but the participants must cover their expenses. Participants of both venues will be able to share their views and take part in both of these fora.

The ODR Forum will be held in an old Malostransky Palace at Mala Strana, Malostranske sq. 2/25, Prague 1. Malostransky Palace is a location of Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the Charles University.   Key organizers include ODR Exchange, Modria and the National Centre for Technology and Dispute Resolution.