Originally from ICDR Awards and Commentaries

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The International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) is the international division of the American Arbitration Association (AAA)1 and since its creation in 1996 its focus has been on providing international conflict management services for the global business and legal communities. These services include a full range of international alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes administered by multilingual staff applying tried and tested international arbitration and mediation rules. The ICDR administrators are divided into regionally specialized teams where their knowledge of local culture, different legal traditions and linguistic capabilities are important components of the administrative regime.2 This framework provides a level of procedural predictability under the ICDR system and creates in its users an expectation of a quick, efficient and economical ADR process. 

Meeting expectations is challenging under the best of circumstances. While justice, speed and economy are the generally accepted goals of ADR, expectations may vary depending on the role and strategy of the party in a particular matter and ultimately whether in their estimations they prevailed or not.3 The ICDR, strives to meet the expectations of its users bt its efforts are balanced against its goals of preserving due process and the integrity of the ADR cases conducted under its auspices. It may be more accurate to describe the ICDR's role as one of managing expectations with its focus on the client and the aforementioned goals of ADR at the core of the ICDR system driving many of its initiatives.4