Ethan Katsh, Professor
_____________________________________

Department of Legal Studies
107 Gordon Hall, UMass/Amherst
Phone:  413-545-5879 / Fax: 413-545-1640
Email: katsh@legal.umass.edu

ODR webpage

 

 

Professor Katsh is a graduate of the Yale Law School and has authored three books on law and technology, Law in a Digital World (Oxford University Press, 1995) The Electronic Media and the Transformation of Law (Oxford University Press, 1989), and, with Professor Rifkin, Online Dispute Resolution: Resolving Conflicts in Cyberspace (2001). His articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, the University of Chicago Legal Forum, and other law reviews and legal periodicals. His work has been the subject of a Review Essay in Law and Social Inquiry (Summer 2002).

Since 1996, Professor Katsh has been involved in a series of activities related to online dispute resolution. He participated in the Virtual Magistrate project and was founder and co-director of the Online Ombuds Office. In 1997, with support from the Hewlett Foundation, he and Professor Rifkin founded the Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution at the University of Massachusetts. In 2001, he received a grant from the Markle Foundation to improve accessibility to domain name dispute rulings. The domain name dispute database, built in collaboration with the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute, became publicly available in May, 2003.

From 1997-1999, Professor Katsh mediated a variety of disputes online, involving domain name/trademark issues, other intellectual property conflicts, disputes with Internet Service Providers, and others. In the Spring of 1999, he supervised a project with the online auction site eBay, in which over 150 disputes were mediated during a two week period. During the Summer of 1999, he co-founded Disputes.org, which later worked with eResolution to become one of four providers accredited by ICANN to resolve domain name disputes. He is also an adviser to SquareTrade.com, an Internet start-up focusing on online ADR.

Professor Katsh chairs the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Expert Group on ODR and coordinated the 2002 and 2003 UNECE Online Dispute Resolution Conferences. He has been Visiting Professor of Law and Cyberspace at Brandeis University, is on the Board of Advisors of the Democracy Design Workshop, serves on the legal advisory board of the InSites E-governance and Civic Engagement Project. and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Currently, Professor Katsh is co-principal investigator with Professors Lee Osterweil and Norman Sondheimer of the Department of Computer Science of a three year National Science Foundation grant "Process Technology for Achieving Government Online Dispute Resolution" to research efforts of the National Mediation Board to employ online dispute resolution.

Professor Katsh has been selected to deliver the first of the 2006-2007 Distinguished Faculty Lectures sponsored by the UMass Amherst Chancellor's and Provost's offices.

Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series

Law in a Digital World: New Processes for an Age of Conflict and Change

Computers and the Internet have an impact on law far beyond such highly publicized issues as file sharing of music, censorship in China, and online pornography. Professor Katsh will discuss not simply how particular intellectual property or free expression cases should be resolved but how potential online civic institutions could protect the values and goals these legal doctrines enshrine. He’ll also consider new processes for dispute resolution and other cyber-mechanisms needed to protect the rule of law.

Ethan Katsh
Department of Legal Studies

Wednesday October 25, 2006

4 p.m.

Massachusetts Room

Mullins Center

Free and open to all.

Reception follows the lecture.

Sponsored by the Office of the Chancellor and the Office of the Provost.

Curriculum Vita

 

Online Dispute Resolution: Resolving Conflicts in Cyberspace
Ethan Katsh, Janet Rifkin
ISBN: 0-7879-5676-7
Hardcover
240 pages
May 2001, Jossey-Bass