The fourth party in online arbitration as a shared virtual workspace

In this article, we consider the collaboration, implementation and legal issues that arise from the use of a shared virtual workspace during online arbitration. Based on the concept of the fourth party we develop an interface that influences the process of communication and negotiation, something that adds decision making value to an arbitrator. We begin this article with a discussion on the arbitration legal issues that will influence our design methodology. We study the group dynamics and how a virtual workspace may work towards improving some of the human interactions that take place during an arbitral proceeding. We then describe the design methodology of the shared virtual workspace and consider some implementation results.