Study On UNCITRAL Technical Notes On Online Dispute Resolution

In order to effectively resolve cross-border e-commerce disputes,the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law(UNCITAL),at its forty-third session,in 2010,decided to establish Working Group III to undertake the work in the area of online dispute.After seven years of negotiations between Working Group III and delegations(2010-2016),the outcome document,Technical Notes on Online Dispute Resolution(Technical Notes),including the common elements and principles in the ODR process,was finalized and adopted at the forty-ninth session of UNCITRAL in December 2016.Although the Technical Notes is a non-binding explanatory document,Technical Notes,the first global document on online dispute resolution for cross-border electronic commerce,has established the principle of ODR,the uniform rules of procedure,the standard of platform and the neutral mechanism.These attempts are very useful for countries to construct their own ODR system.Before Technical Notes,Working Group III and delegations prepared Online Dispute Resolution for Cross-Border Electronic Commerce Transactions: Draft Procedure Rules(Draft Procedure Rules),on the general procedural issues of online dispute resolution.The ninth draft had been developed by 2015.The Draft Procedure Rules discusses three key issues,ODR procedural rules,the governing law and the cross-border enforcement of dispute resolutions,which are very important to the ODR system.Regional national organizations have also made various attempts to build ODR system.The legislative guideline presented by the United States to CIDIP-? focused on the construction of the ODR system and proposed solutions to those three key issues.Comparing the three issues in Technical Notes,Draft Procedure Rules,Proposals by Delegations and Provisions of Regional International Organizations,the progressiveness and conservatism of the Technical Notes can be displayed,and we can have a better understanding of the function of Technical Notes.After comparison,it shows that:according to the ODR procedural rules,the Technical Notes establish uniform procedural rules and clarify the procedure for the appointment of neutrals,but it does not discuss the question of whether the final stage is arbitration or non-arbitration;with regard to the governing law,the Technical Notes does not discuss this issue at all,let alone the choices between traditional method and the method of unifying the governing law;as for the cross-border enforcement of dispute resolutions,the Technical Notes does not establish a private enforcement system.The absence of the Technical Notes on these three key issues will reduce the influence of itself in the construction of a global online dispute resolution system for cross-border e-commerce.But the Draft Procedure Rules,Proposals by Delegations and Provisions and Practices of Regional International Organizations will provide additional ideas.When designing and implementing the ODR system for cross-border economical disputes in China,the Technical Notes should be considered as reference and measures should be taken in line with national circumstances and international trends.