The UNCITRAL Working Group III (Online Dispute Resolution) is meeting this week in New York to continue discussions about a system to handle cross-border e-commerce disputes. I will be at the meetings for the first couple of days, with a student from SMU who is interning with Youstice, one of the European platforms in line to do cross-border work in the EU.
The latest edition of GPSolo magazine (January-February 2015), contains an article by Jeff Aresty, Robin Page West, and me about the advantages that various ODR platforms can have for small firms and sole practitioners. GPSolo is the publication of the ABA’s Solo, Small Firm, and General Practice Division. The article can be found on pages 22-26 of Volume 32, Number 1, or in the online filing cabinet of publications on this web site.
This afternoon Jeff Aresty, Don Philbin, Colin Rule, and I presented to the Texas Bar’s “Alternative Dispute Resolution 2015” conference. Colin and Don demonstrated ODR platforms and I spoke briefly about the impact of technology on third party ethics. Basically, I suggested that the platforms Don and Colin were demonstrating would become more prevalent in the future, but that at the moment technology of some kind is used by all or almost all lawyers and third parties. My message was my usual one – any use of technology has an impact on the ethics of practice. I concentrated on confidentiality and security (with a focus on record keeping), and third party competence – those are the issues that I think are most on the minds of practitioners, and the most critical in dealing with parties. The presentation today was a short version of comments that I have made many times before, and which can be found in some of the publications on this site.
As my friends, colleagues, and students will attest, I don’t often seem at a loss for words. The attack on Charlie Hebdo, however, left me numbed by the repetition of killing for truth, and prompted me to draw what I would guess are a couple of dozen quick sketches of Charlie Brown in various shades of sorrow, anger, disgust, and, perhaps finally, resignation.
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Every time one of these terror events occurs there seems to be a renewal of the assertion that the Muslim community does not publicly condemn those who kill in the name of Allah. Maybe, just maybe, a glimmer of silver lining this time could be that not only has the Muslim community spoken out quickly and loudly, some who have accused them of silence before are actually hearing the condemnations. Maybe that’s a little bit of silver lining. But it’s pretty cold comfort.
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On one end of the spectrum in the US, Bill Maher, a noted and loudmouthed liberal, offers the opinion that with so many “bad apples” there must be “something wrong with the orchard.” At the other end, conservatives of all stripes have mouthed the expected words – not all Muslims are terrorists – but their actions, too, push us further toward division, suspicion, isolation, and intolerance. Overall, there are a lot of voices shouting out condemnation for the acts in Paris – and, as usual, the only ones I am sure are not listening at all are the ones who committed the acts, and the ones who will come after them to commit more.
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I’m as sad, and angry, and bewildered as Charlie. And it cements in my mind the conviction that there is nothing so dangerous as an individual who is absolutely sure he or she knows the truth.
