Center for the Future of Dispute Resolution (CFDR)

Research

About our research

We study how dispute resolution evolves under the impulse of a series of social developments. In dealing with this question of ‘quo vadis dispute resolution?’, we adopt an international, comparative and multi-disciplinary approach.

Digitalization and out-of-court dispute resolution are two of our main focuses. Two red threads running through our various research projects concern: 

  • The role, position and added-value of the human decision-maker
  • The weight given to party-autonomy and concerns of legitimacy as opposed to standards of efficiency

Main Research Topics

Digitalization

  • Resilience and Covid-19

  • E-signatures and e- awards and judgments

  • Cybersecurity and confidentiality

  • Virtual hearings and due process

Europeanization

  • Growing influence of EU law in the field of dispute resolution

  • GDPR and actors of justice

  • Dispute resolution and e-commerce

Artificial Intelligence

  • Centaur arbitration

  • The human persona of the decision-maker/facilitator

Conflict prevention

  • Apology legislation

  • Acknowledgment of wrongdoing

Citizen participation

  • Mediation and facilitation during participatory processes

Ethics

  • Impact of personality & human qualities of mediators and facilitators

  • Virtue ethics and ADR

PhD research

Ongoing PhD Research (in alphabetical order)

  • Elise Dauw : De rechter en het voorwerp van de vordering (Promotor: Piet Taelman)
  • Max De Schryver : De regulering van de vorm en inhoud van processtukken, gekaderd binnen de ontwikkelingen in het burgerlijk procesrecht (Promotor: Wannes Vandenbussche)
  • Kevin Ongenae: Arbitral Awards for the Third and Fourth Revolution: E-signatures in Arbitration and the Digitization of Arbitral Awards (Promotor: Maud Piers)
  • Xianqi Peng : Arbitrability of Disputes involving International Public-Private Partnership Contracts (Promotor: Maud Piers)

Successful PhD Research (in order of obtaining degree)

Publications