Dispute resolution
process and methods of resolving conflicts or disputes between parties—such as individuals, enterprises, corporations, and governments—through legal, judicial, or alternative mechanisms like mediation and arbitration
Dispute resolution or dispute settlement is the process of resolving disputes between parties. The term dispute resolution is conflict resolution through legal means.
Prominent venues for dispute settlement in international law include the International Court of Justice (formerly the Permanent Court of International Justice); the United Nations Human Rights Committee (which operates under the ICCPR) and European Court of Human Rights; the Panels and Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization; and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Half of all international agreements include a dispute settlement mechanism.
States are also known to form their own arbitration tribunals to settle disputes. Prominent private international courts, which adjudicate disputes between commercial private entities, include the International Court of Arbitration (of the International Chamber of Commerce) and the London Court of International Arbitration.
Methods
Methods of dispute resolution include:
lawsuits (litigation) (legislative)
arbitration
collaborative law
mediation
conciliation
negotiation
facilitation
avoidance
Dispute resolution processes fall into two major types:
Adjudicative processes, such as litigation or arbitration, in which a judge, jury or arbitrator determines the outcome.
Consensual processes, such as collaborative law, mediation, conciliation, or negotiation, in which the parties attempt to reach agreement.
Not all disputes, even those in which skilled intervention occurs, end in resolution. Such intractable disputes form a special area in dispute resolution studies.
The public source identifies “Dispute resolution” as process and methods of resolving conflicts or disputes between parties—such as individuals, enterprises, corporations, and governments—through legal, judicial, or alternative mechanisms like mediation and arbitration. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dispute, resolution and process.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5282696. The Library of Congress control number is sh85038478. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dispute resolution” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.