Developing negotiation decision support systems that promote constructive relationships following disputes

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Background

1. achieving a wise agreement - that is 'an agreement that meets the legitimate interests of each side to the extent possible, resolves conflicting interests fairly, is durable, and takes community interests into account.' (Fisher and Ury, 1981) and,
2. improving or maintaining the relationship between the disputing parties. In the case of both body corporate and family disputes involving children, negotiations must meet these criteria, as the disputants inevitably need to deal with each other once the conflict has abated.

Both Relationships Australia (family mediation) and Victoria Body Corporate (body corporate disputes) provide dispute resolution services for clients who need to have constructive relationships following the cessation of the conflict. The project will use information technology to develop negotiation decision support systems that promote continuing constructive relationships and 'wise' outcomes. The systems developed will:

1. use argumentation theory, game theory and machine learning to provide advice that meet users' interests;
2. ensure basic legal and ethical principles are adhered to in any negotiated settlement;
3. provide procedural fairness by ensuring a transparent process is followed;
4. provide timely access to negotiation support, leading to durable outcomes. And most importantly, those disputes that are classified as 'requiring urgent intervention' will be more quickly referred to expert human mediators or others; and
5. provide efficient solutions at the lowest cost to consumers and the broader community.

The development of NSS that focus upon complying with notions of fairness rather than mere integrative bargaining, will produce more durable outcomes. Systems dealing with body corporate and family disputes will be constructed, leading to the eventual development of a generic Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Environment. It will enhance the use of E-Commerce, by convincing consumers to have confidence in the dispute resolution process. The advice given by resulting systems will lead to significant cost savings as well as decreasing human anxiety and stress and preventing the negative consequences of escalating conflicts.

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