For those attending the American Bar Association annual conference in San Francisco April 19-22, we hope that you will come to the discussion of The New Handshake by Amy Schmitz and Colin Rule and Digital Justice: Technology and the Internet of Disputes by Ethan Katsh and Orna Rabinovich-Einy. The session will be on Thursday April 20th at 2:45. Information about Digital Justice can be found here.

The I CONFERENCE ON CONSUMER ADR AND ODR: THE NEW EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE AND THE REFORM OF THE SPANISH LAW will be held at the University of Granada(Granada, SPAIN), on 28-29^th of November. While adaptation to the new European legal landscape for alternative and online consumer dispute resolution has taken place in most European Union Member States, in Spain it is still pending of approval. The six panels of the Conference aim to make a diagnosis on the Spanish system, to identify models of successful regulation in comparative law, discover the role of ODR and make proposals for reform to help optimize consumer access to agile and flexible pathways of claims settlement. The conference will include the participation of relevant foreign academia experts such as professors Ethan Katsh, Orna Rabinovich-Einy, Mario Frota, Catia Cebola, Naomi Creutzfeld Banda, Jane Williams, Brian Hutchinson and Fernando Esteban de la Rosa and practitioners from the field.

Information about the program and registration is available at the following web site: www.adr.legal. For further information please contact adrconf.organisation@ugr.es.

Information about the program and registration is available at the following web site: www.adr.legal. For further information please contact adrconf.organisation@ugr.es.

Director: Fernando Esteban de la Rosa.

Scientific Committee: Ángeles Lara Aguado, Nuria Marchal Escalona, Miguel Ángel Moreno Navarrete, Ricardo Rueda Valdivia, Carmen Ruiz Sutil, Mercedes Soto Moya

Coordinator: Ozana Olariu

The first ODR2016 International Forum at the Hague in May was a great success. There will be a second ODR2016 International Forum this year. It will be held in Beijing September 19-20 (with optional tours on September 18 and 21). Information about the Beijing Forum is at http://uibesz.org/xygg/shownews.php?lang=cn&id=230 If you have any questions about attending, would like to make a presentation or would like an invitation (which you will need to obtain a visa), please email our host, Andy Lee of the The Unversity of International Business and Economics at anyu.lee@gmail-in-China or his associate Angela Zhu at odr2016@163.com or angelazjx@126.com. I hope that we will see you there.

Ethan Katsh
Director, National Center for Technology
and Dispute Resolution

The conference is in less than two weeks.

Two weeks from now, the 15th annual conference on ODR comes to The Hague, the place with the highest density of judges and courts you can find anywhere in the world. It takes place at the Peace Palace, on Monday May 23 and Tuesday May 24. Contrary to previous editions, this year’s conference is themed ODR and the Courts and will try to answer the question: “Can ODR really help courts and improve access to justice?”

For previous editions, the most prominent practitioners, academic experts and dispute resolution entrepreneurs have met in high tech hot spots such as Haifa, Chennai, at Stanford University in Silicon Valley, and most recently in New York City. This year, the lineup of keynote speakers includes international judges, chief justices and experts on ODR and legal technology from across the world, including the father of ODR, Ethan Katsh, founder of Modria Colin Rule, Senior Presiding Judge of England and Wales, Lord Justice Fulford, and many more.

This year’s conference will be organized by HiiL Innovating Justice with the National Centre for Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

For more information, please go to the conference website (www.20160dr.wordpress.com), where you can register (https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/odr-2016-tickets-20888613405) and follow the latest news on the conference! We also invite you to join the Facebook event(https://www.facebook.com/events/677915552311509/) and to follow us on Twitter (#ODR2016)

The deadline for proposals for the ABA Section on Dispute Resolution annual meeting  is September 15, 2015. The meeting will be held in New York April 7-9, 2016.

Two very interesting articles about the use of ODR in the Journal of the International Ombudsman Association –

As Colin noted, we thought it was time to give the site a new design and new content. Everything should be up and running in a week or two. We appreciate your patience but please feel free to contact us if there is anything you need.

Ethan