OASIS LegalXML Online Dispute Resolution TC

The original Call For Participation for this TC may be found at http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/tc-announce/200210/msg00004.html

The charter for this TC is as follows.

Name

Online Dispute Resolution TC in the OASIS LegalXML Member Section

The Technical Committee may constitute subcommittees or other groupings as appear necessary and appropriate to carrying out the Technical Committee's purpose.

Statement of Purpose

Mission

The OdrXML mission is to develop open XML standards for the markup of information and documents used in online dispute resolution systems. The primary goal is to allow the public to gain standardized access to justice through private and government sponsored dispute resolution systems. These efforts will draw on standards that seek to establish electronic commerce and allow dispute resolution information to flow into agencies, court and corporations who sponsor or utilize dispute resolution services. The Technical committee will develop and review requirements, specifications and schemas for OdrXML and to harmonize current document type definitions (DTD) and schemas among developers, providers, vendors, agencies and other organizations involved in online dispute resolution.

Language and Applicable Legal Domain

The OdrXML TC will focus on online dispute resolution and related documents in the legal domain in the United States, Europe and other countries as they participate. The TC will conduct the email discussion, teleconference and face to face meetings in English. The TC will coordinate its work with the efforts of others countries. It will enlarge the scope of the TC to allow consideration of other countries and international bodies requirements into the development of standards.

Stakeholders

The stakeholders in the ODR community include:

  1. Parties who participate in online disputes, with particular focus on parties involved in disputes arising from eCommerce and other transactions over the Internet
  2. Neutrals who wish to use Internet resources to resolve disputes.These include arbitrators, mediators, referees, facilitators and other professionals and volunteers involved in Alternative Dispute Resolution.
  3. Providers of software and services for Online Dispute Resolution.
  4. Public and private organizations that refer disputes to on-line services (e.g. Court, Consumer Complaint Agency, Insurance Company) and receive reports and documents from ODR providers (such as status reports to courts, or the filing of a final arbitration award)

Scope of Effort

The OdrXML Technical Committee will endeavor to:

  1. Encourage the development and harmonization of standards, schemas, DTD's, data models, data dictionaries, requirements, specifications, certifications, seals of approval and policies involved in Online Dispute Resolution.
  2. Foster communications between members of the Technical Committee and keep the public informed of developments.
  3. Examine options and offer proposals or requirements for an open repository or registry for entities that use, reuse, exchange or report on ODR activities.
  4. Co-host meetings or conferences with relevant entities for stakeholders to participate in the TC continuing the efforts to promote open standards, and
  5. Promote consideration of standards in the private and public sectors.

To support this scope of activities, the TC shall seek to aggregate, review and harmonize XML work product of developers, providers, neutrals, end user, companies and public institution that use or plan to use ODR. The TC will also promote the adoption of standards by traditional providers of Alternative Dispute Resolution Services, including professional organizations and institutional users of ADR services.

To help achieve this scope, the OdrXML TC will

  1. Facilitate, monitor, assess and publicize tests and demonstrations, standards, requirements, specifications, data models, DTD's or Schemas for online dispute resolution.
  2. Follow an open process of discussion and debate with full consideration of the stakeholders' different points of view.
  3. Seek wide scale adoption of proposed LegalXML/OASIS - OdrXML standards, and
  4. Promote the use of recommended standards in the ODR, ADR and related communities.

Requirements Definition

The TC will conduct a formal process to verify the initial requirements definition in this section. That process will identify the relevant needs and processes utilized by neutrals, providers, referring entities, and end-users. It will also determine the extent to which upstream and downstream users such as Courts, agencies, corporations, law firms, business users and the public at large may affect requirements for the work of this TC.

Stakeholders' Requirements

The TC should reflect the requirements of the stakeholder community in any DTD, Schemas or other work product it develops, harmonizes or endorses. The standards should represent the way information is exchanged between the parties. The exchange of information should also include text chats, instant messaging, web conferencing and Voice or Video over IP.

Specific Requirements

The TC will specifically consider the following requirements:

  1. XML Syntax. The TC will adopt XML standards and syntax for a party to inquire about ODR, choose a mode of ODR, select a suitable mode, select a neutral, notify the neutral and other parties, submit claims and counterclaims along with any digital documentation. The syntax should also address how the parties and neutral communicate electronically with each other and with referring or monitoring institutions. The syntax should enable the parties and neutrals to exchange information about claims. It should also allow attachments of documents and other digital media, as well as any award or agreement, and any information about resolution or closing report about the claim.
  2. W3C and OASIS. The TC will seek to utilize W3C and OASIS specifications as well as ISO or other appropriate standards, except in those cases made impossible by the legal and binding adoption of non-standard but legal requirements including any that protect the public and foster dispute resolution.
  3. Elements and Attributes. The TC will help develop and promote specification that can be used universally by all users and providers. These component specifications may include elements and attributes (e.g. unique identifiers, creation dates, etc.), as appropriate.

Full Life Cycle Solution

The solution should allow a user, neutral, provider or referring entity to manage the full life cycle of a dispute through resolution. The solution should provide means for search and retrieval to locate documents and extract data based on several criteria including metadata and tags by means of Boolean and natural language queries appropriate.

List of Deliverables

Business Requirements

The OdrXML TC will work with its members and the ODR/ADR community to define business requirements of all stakeholders and reflect them in the scope of work. It should ensure that any standard have real value for the public in the form of better access, lower cost, and/or easier referencing. The initial starting point should be requirements definition, which shall discussed openly and approved by consensus.

Data Models

The ODR TC will work with its members in reviewing and harmonizing one or more data models meeting the requirements specified in this Charter;

DTD or Schema

The ODR TC shall complete one or more DTD(s) and/or Schema(s) meeting the requirements specified in this Charter and deriving from the specified data model(s).

Data Dictionary.

The TC shall review and approve a data dictionary that provides the intended meaning of each element, attribute or other component of the final specification.

Sample Data

The TC shall encourage the creation of documents, message, transactions and case management records using sample data and documents marked up according to the DTD/Schema developed through this TC.

Style-Sheets and Other Components

Beyond creating or arriving at consensus on the OdrXML data model and DTD or Schema, the TC may also template style-sheets, CSS, XSLT, XPATH, X-Query, XSL-FO to provide users and developers with a 'starting point' to modify and create their own.

Standing Rules

The OdrXML TC will conduct its business in compliance with:

  1. All OASIS By-Laws and Rules of Procedures (ROP)
  2. Oasis Technical Committee Process Revision Approved By OASIS Board Of Directors, 16 September 2002
  3. The LegalXML OASIS Member Section Rules of Procedures. The Technical Committee shall comply with LegalXML TC Rules of Procedure as amended from time to time. This Technical Committee specifically acknowledges and adopts the following provisions from Section 2. Technical Process, Management, Reporting.
  4. "OdrXML" is an OASIS Technical Committee. It may be called a "LegalXML Technical Committee" because of it topic and its association with the LegalXML member section.
  5. Technical work submitted to OASIS Technical Committees will be in accordance with the OASIS Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) policy as a base.
  6. Any standard, specification or other work product resulting from the work of the OdrXML technical committee shall remain free and open for perpetual, global use. In no event shall this Technical Committee finalize or approve any technical specification if it believes that the use, distribution, or implementation of such specification would necessarily require the unauthorized infringement of any third party rights known to the Technical Committee, and such third party has not agreed to provide necessary license rights on perpetual, royalty-free, non-discriminatory terms.
  7. Technical work products created and approved by this Technical Committee must be designated as "LegalXML Technical Committee Specifications". Only work products approved by a vote of the OASIS general membership will be referred to as "OASIS Standards".

 

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