Bitcoin arbitration court - legal alternative to escrow

[imfed]

What do you think about founding a (or better more than one) Bitcoin Arbitration Court?

- An arbitration court is easy to incorporate (as a non-profit foundation) and you won't need a license to operate an arbitration court

- Thanks to the New York Convention (The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards) arbitral awards are recognized and enforceable in 146 countries.

- Arbitration courts are independent from any national legislation

International arbitration is an increasingly popular means of alternative dispute resolution for cross-border commercial transactions. The primary advantage of international arbitration over court litigation is enforceability: an international arbitration award is enforceable in most countries in the world. Other advantages of international arbitration include the ability to select a neutral forum to resolve disputes, that arbitration awards are final and not ordinarily subject to appeal, the ability to choose flexible procedures for the arbitration, and confidentiality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Recognition_and_Enforcement_of_Foreign_Arbitral_Awards

It would be a more secure and legal alternative to escrow (where a third party holds funds) and can be perfectly used for 2of3 multsig transactions.

[NewLiberty]

Go for it.
You'll need judges well versed in international contracting legal issues
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Association-International-Arbitration-3424020

You'll need some technology (to convene the court, online I'd imagine), probably you want to join some of the organizations
http://www.arbitration-adr.org/

But why not do the simple (at the outset) and liaison with one or more of the existing firms that do this?

They may not have the subject matter expertise, which could be the value-added from your group.  You could work with several in each region, developing the relationships, and select the appropriate firm for the particular contract issue.

Bitcoin is still a small-fry in international contracting, but the growth is going to prove rewarding.
I wish you every success with this venture.

[JDBound]

I own CoinJudge.com and was seeking to do something similar to what you describe. Shoot me a PM if you'd like to discuss.

[sunnankar]

Unfortunately, judge.me went under.

I have been tossing this idea around in my head for a while and think there is a lot of potential with it.

[TheEmperor]

What do you think about founding a (or better more than one) Bitcoin Arbitration Court?

- An arbitration court is easy to incorporate (as a non-profit foundation) and you won't need a license to operate an arbitration court

- Thanks to the New York Convention (The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards) arbitral awards are recognized and enforceable in 146 countries.

- Arbitration courts are independent from any national legislation

International arbitration is an increasingly popular means of alternative dispute resolution for cross-border commercial transactions. The primary advantage of international arbitration over court litigation is enforceability: an international arbitration award is enforceable in most countries in the world. Other advantages of international arbitration include the ability to select a neutral forum to resolve disputes, that arbitration awards are final and not ordinarily subject to appeal, the ability to choose flexible procedures for the arbitration, and confidentiality.

I think this could be one of the biggest benefits to the current Bitcoin 'world'.

Enforcing said rulings however, may be a problem. This requires the access of personal information for starters, which currently a large portion of Bitcoin users do not want/like to do. Also, what sort of rulings would the Court make that could be enforceable worldwide? Would this mean that the Court then has to be open and co operative with Interpol, FBI et al?

Lastly, in keeping with the honesty and openness of the Bitcoin protocol as well as the community, it appears to me that confidentiality would not be able to be maintained with regards to each ruling?

[NewLiberty]

What do you think about founding a (or better more than one) Bitcoin Arbitration Court?

- An arbitration court is easy to incorporate (as a non-profit foundation) and you won't need a license to operate an arbitration court

- Thanks to the New York Convention (The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards) arbitral awards are recognized and enforceable in 146 countries.

- Arbitration courts are independent from any national legislation

International arbitration is an increasingly popular means of alternative dispute resolution for cross-border commercial transactions. The primary advantage of international arbitration over court litigation is enforceability: an international arbitration award is enforceable in most countries in the world. Other advantages of international arbitration include the ability to select a neutral forum to resolve disputes, that arbitration awards are final and not ordinarily subject to appeal, the ability to choose flexible procedures for the arbitration, and confidentiality.

I think this could be one of the biggest benefits to the current Bitcoin 'world'.

Enforcing said rulings however, may be a problem. This requires the access of personal information for starters, which currently a large portion of Bitcoin users do not want/like to do. Also, what sort of rulings would the Court make that could be enforceable worldwide? Would this mean that the Court then has to be open and co operative with Interpol, FBI et al?

Lastly, in keeping with the honesty and openness of the Bitcoin protocol as well as the community, it appears to me that confidentiality would not be able to be maintained with regards to each ruling?

These can be pre-negotiate items in a standard checklist.
Much of this can be enforced through the bitcoin protocol.
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Contracts#Example_2:_Escrow_and_dispute_mediation

If your project releases an enhanced client that incorporates these, you have an easy win.

[justusranvier]

We're going to be doing something more robust and P2P, based on OpenTransactions.

[NewLiberty]

We're going to be doing something more robust and P2P, based on OpenTransactions.

Excellent, that is even better.
I've been hoping to see more implementation of those tools. 
This is pretty exciting, and I hope to at minimum stay informed if not assist.

[imfed]

Enforcing said rulings however, may be a problem. This requires the access of personal information for starters, which currently a large portion of Bitcoin users do not want/like to do.

I would start with standard contracts for currency exchange and online auctions. The contracts would not be more complex than the terms of sites like localbitcoins, bitmit or bitcoin.de.

The arbitration court would have the same role as the escrow service of e.g. localbitcoins.com, except one difference: Our business model is only focused on dispute resolution. Unlike escrow services we never hold any customer's funds, and that's a big regulatory advantage.

Enforcement can be done easily with cryptographic signatures:

   a) 2-of-3 multi-signature transactions (slow and expensive, not widely supported yet)
       https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0011
       https://blockchain.info/wallet/escrow

   b) a private key encrypted using Shamir's Secret Sharing (2 of 3 shares to decrypt the private key)
       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamir%27s_Secret_Sharing