Comments on: Portuguese Ministry of Justice to Open Alternative Dispute Resolution Facility in Second Life

By: Virtually Blind - Virtual Law | Legal Issues That Impact Virtual Worlds » Blog Archive » Al-Andalus Caliphate Government Sim Opens in Second Life; Judiciary Based on Islamic Law

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 05:25:07 +0000

[...] Developer ‘Michel Manen’ said that over 200 avatars visited during the ceremonies, including ‘Robin Linden’ (Robin Harper, Linden Lab’s VP of Marketing and Community Development). The event included music, and a presentation by Second Life commentator ‘Gwyneth Llewelyn‘ on the Portuguese e-Justice alternative dispute resolution facility that recently opened in Second Life. [...]

By: Mind Booster Noori

Mind Booster Noori — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 10:04:44 +0000

Benjamin: yes, that was the question.

By: Ashcroft Burnham

Ashcroft Burnham — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 20:49:31 +0000

I understand that the centre is to use Portugese law for its arbitrations, and has no independent, in-world enforcement mechanism (parties would have to go to an actual court, perhaps in Portugal, to enforce their arbitration agreement, and incur all the expenses and difficulties that in-world arbitration/litigation is there to save). As such, it does not solve the pressing need for a SecondLife-specific system of law, but does provide an interesting insight into the future of first-life legal disputes; may one day substantial amounts of arbitration be done in virtual space?

By: Benjamin Duranske

Benjamin Duranske — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:27:50 +0000

Mind Booster Noori – thanks a lot for that link. It looks to me like one of the biggest questions the poster is asking is, “What happens if one of the parties won’t participate or refuses to comply with the decision?” Is that right?

Very interesting piece. Thanks again for linking to it, and for your comment.

By: Mind Booster Noori

Mind Booster Noori — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 18:23:43 +0000

Hi there,

While I’m not expecting to write more about this but in a couple of days, wanting to first listen all the stuff the Portuguese media is talking about it, oppinions and reactions, there’s already one oppinion that I think you might be interested in reading. It is written in Portuguese, so here is the translated version. Since the translation is automatic, you might find hard to understand something there. If you do, or if you want to know something else, feel free to ask me and I’ll try to give you the propper answer.

By: Benjamin Duranske

Benjamin Duranske — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:12:24 +0000

Marcos Daniel Marado Torres (‘Mind Booster Noori’), a Informatics Engineer in Lisbon, posted a short writeup that includes a summary of the Q&A from the opening (actually, they only took three Q’s and the A’s are pretty skimpy, but it’s something). He’s contemplating posting more, and I hope he does.