[6] Dispute resolution is an important requirement in international trade, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation.
For example, supreme court cases can rule on whether US states have the constitutional right to criminalize abortion but will not cause the parties involved in the case to no longer disagree on whether states do indeed have the constitutional authority to restrict access to abortion as one of the parties may disagree with the supreme courts reasoning and still disagree with the party that the supreme court sided with.
Outcomes are decided by an impartial judge and/or jury, based on the factual questions of the case and the application law.
Judicial dispute resolution is typically adversarial in nature, for example, involving antagonistic parties or opposing interests seeking an outcome most favorable to their position.
Due to the antagonistic nature of litigation, collaborators frequently opt for solving disputes privately.
Some use the term dispute resolution to refer only to alternative dispute resolution (ADR), that is, extrajudicial processes such as arbitration, collaborative law, and mediation used to resolve conflict and potential conflict between and among individuals, business entities, governmental agencies, and (in the public international law context) states.
ADR has experienced steadily increasing acceptance and utilization because of a perception of greater flexibility, costs below those of traditional litigation, and speedy resolution of disputes, among other perceived advantages.