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outcome along a litigation path. It can be quite relevant in the calculation of the real
risks that parties will face in a judicially determined litigation, imagining the worst
possible outcome for the party.
However, it couldalso be interesting to consider the roomalready settled between
the BATNA and WATNA, as a useful element to be taken into account for making
(or accepting) a proposal. Of course, excluding the space between BATNA and
WATNA, less dangerous is for the party not to accept the agreement (unless, of
course, its BATNA is really unfavorable). A wider room between BATNA and
WATNA would usually mean that it becomes rather dangerous for the party not to
accept the ODR agreement (except in situations when the WATNA is really not in-
convenient at all for the party). This ideais evidently related to the Zone of Possible
Agreement (ZOPA) proposed by Raiffa (1982) [10].
Moreover, it would be interesting for a party to understand the region of such a
space in which aresult is more likely to come about, i.e., if the parties are going to
solve the dispute through litigation, which is the most likely outcome? In fact, stick-
ing only with the BATNA and WATNA may not be realistic. Thus, an informed party
should also consider concept of MLATNA - Most Likely Alternative to a Negotiated
Agreement. Using the same arguments, it may bring to a close that the existence of
metrics that assess the probability of each possible outcome could also be extremely
useful for a party. Thus, it will be possible to consider the view of plausible case: a
possible outcome with an associated value of likeliness.
2.2 Abstract Processes
Likewise, there are processes that implement key functionalities, which are intangible
enough to be reused in a number of legal domains. Concretely, two abstract processes
were applied: case retrieval and negotiation. The former caters for a selection of a set
of past known cases that can be relevant, considering the current dispute. Parties can
then analyze these cases, and obtain valuable information about past similar disputes.
The remaining one is concerning with negotiation, making available a common nego-
tiation process in which two or more parties state their opinions in sequential rounds
about the subject being negotiated. This process allows the parties to reach a consen-
sus about the outcome of a dispute.
3 An Architecture for a Multifaceted ODR Platform
Let us now depict the architecture that implements the ideas described so far. There
are two main issues: the actual abstract architecture and an ontology that allows for
the agents to perform specific tasks according to the domain of discourse.
3.1 The Architecture
The architecture builds on a set of software agents, autonomous and proactive, that
cooperate in order to achieve their goals. On the other hand, a development strategy
was devised that organizes the agents in two categories, namely: high-level agents
and low-level ones. High-level agents perform tasks that do not need explicit domain-
dependant information. Low-level ones are closer to the legal domain, inneedof
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