Call for Abstracts on Transnational Dispute Resolution in an increasingly digitalized world.

The call for abstracts for the ‘Transnational Dispute Resolution in an Increasingly Digitalized World’ conference is now open until 1 December 2021. This online conference will be hosted by the Center for the Future of Dispute Resolution at Ghent University on Thursday 24 March 2022.

The increased digitalization in the field dispute resolution, which received a boost from the Covid-19 pandemic, raises a number of important questions in terms of privacy, cybersecurity, data protection and artificial intelligence, going from rather practical concerns (how to protect the information exchanged, how to organize the taking of evidence, how to comply with the various obligations, etc.) to more fundamental inquiries (does it scare litigants off, does it foster or rather compromise efficiency, etc.).

The goal of the conference is to bring together academics, practitioners and policy makers with expertise in the field of dispute resolution (arbitration, transnational litigation, mediation, other ADR mechanisms) and technology law. That is why we are particularly (but not exclusively) interested in contributions that focus on

  • Obligations of the actors of justice
  • Challenges and opportunities of (partial) online proceedings
  • Evidentiary issues related to cybersecurity and data protection
  • The (ab)use of these instruments as a dispute resolution strategy

and discuss these forward-looking dispute resolution topics in light of the various privacy, data protection, cybersecurity and AI regulations.

Ph.D. candidates, senior researchers and legal practitioners are invited to submit an abstract (on one of the topics above or on a topic of their own choice relating to the general theme) by 1 December 2021 to Maud.Piers@ugent.be and Wannes.Vandenbussche@ugent.be. Abstracts should be no longer than 1000 words. Authors of selected abstracts will be notified by 10 January 2022.

All contributions should be in English. This online conference is intended to serve as a first opportunity to present and discuss the authors’ ideas. Publication venues for the final papers will also be explored.

Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the two members of the organizing committee.

Maud Piers

Wannes Vandenbussche