UNCITRAL Working Group on ODR Dec. 13-17th in Vienna

UNCITRAL Assigns ODR to a Working Group

The 43^rd session of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) was held in New York, from June 29 – July 9, 2010.  On July 6, 2010, under the leadership of Chairman Professor Ricardo Sandoval Lopez (Chile), state delegations discussed whether work in the field of ODR for cross-border electronic commerce transactions should be assigned to an open Working Group of UNCITRAL.

State delegations from every region of the world overwhelmingly supported the assignment of a Working Group for ODR.  Some debate ensued regarding the scope of the mandate to be given to the Working Group.  Ultimately, the Commission assigned a Working Group, granting a broad mandate:

“After discussion, the Commission agreed that a Working Group should be established to undertake work in the field of online dispute resolution relating to cross-border electronic commerce transactions, including business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions. It was also agreed that the form of the legal standard to be prepared should be decided by the Working Group after further discussion of the topic.” (forthcoming UNCITRAL report)

The dates for the first Working Group meeting will be on Dec. 13th-17th at the United Nations’ offices in Vienna, Austria.

The Institute of International Commercial Law wishes to thank the approximately 40 organizations and institutions that supported the Institute’s Note submitted to UNCITRAL prior to the discussion at the Commission meeting, supporting the future work on ODR by UNCITRAL (UNCITRAL Doc. No. A/CN.9/710; the Institute is an approved NGO observer to UNCITRAL).

More about the organizations and institutions see  http://www.cisg.law.pace.edu/cisg/ODR/working_group.html