ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT OF UNCITRAL MODEL LAW

The influence of modern technologies (especially of the Internet) has been enormous in last two decades. It had crucial impact mainly on the swift growth of cross-border electronic commerce. Traditional judicial mechanisms were unable to offer proportionate solution to deal with e-commerce diputes. Such situation had opened up an area for Online Dispute Resolution. Online Dispute Resolution rules are however being developed ad hoc recently. The necessity to unify this shattered area was foreseen by the UNCITRAL which had charged Working Group III with creation of the model law. This paper will focus on the main aspects of the model law. It will try to describe problematic areas as well as the current state of the development of such rules. It was predicted that model law should be already prepared however major conflicts between different law cultures slow down and limit further advancement. The paper in the end expresses the necessity to clearly define the scope of the model law to be possible to move further and to offer highly needed UNICTRAL rules for Online Dispute Resolution.