Prerana Das & Oishee Banerjee, Amity Law School, Kolkata
ABSTRACT
The concept of Alternate dispute resolution is not novel; its existence can be traced back to the 19th century. Although ADR or Alternate Dispute Resolution has been in existence for a long time, the recent pandemic has given impetus to the shift from the traditional courts to alternate means of dispute resolution. The dispute resolution ecosystem in India has been getting streamlined over the last two decades, majorly involving two kinds of reform measures. Firstly, enhancing the judicial efficiency of dispute resolution and, secondly, cutting down the enormous load of entries that occur in the conventional court system.
Earlier, the exorbitant cost of litigation and the delay in the administration of justice were the main drawbacks of the rigid traditional legal system, but with the rapid development in technology, more unconventional problems came to the forefront, such as large scale e-commerce activities and cross border interactions online inching towards to e-disputes such as identity theft, hacking, invasion of privacy, e-purchases of goods and services and the like.
Furthermore, the paper is divided into three main themes; the first part deals with the origin, development, significance and the current legal framework, the second part discusses the modes of Online Dispute Resolution, such as negotiation, arbitration and mediation in the online mode, the global usage of Online Dispute Resolution and its limitations Lastly, the research paves the path for a way ahead, providing specific recommendations that can be adopted to make the process of Online Dispute Resolution more efficient and accessible.
Keywords: Online Dispute Resolution, Alternate Dispute Resolution, Arbitration, Mediation, Negotiations, COVID 19, Legal system.
