Asia Pacific Disputes Resolution: Cross-cultural and Comparative Disputes Resolution Research
Principal Investigator: Pitman Potter, IAR Hong Kong Bank Chair in Asian Research and Professor of Law
The Asia Pacific Dispute Resolution Project is based in the Institute of Asian Research (IAR) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) and sponsored by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), through its Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI) program, and the Office of Vice-President Research at UBC. The Project’s Principal Investigator is Dr. Pitman Potter, Professor of Law and Director of IAR at UBC, and involves a network of colleagues from UBC and from partner institutions in North America and Asia.
This Phase One MCRI Project supported research, analysis and policy proposals aimed at building knowledge on cross-cultural dispute resolution in international trade and human rights in Canada, China and Japan. Interviews and archival research, as well as statistical and qualitative data analysis were compiled to explain interactions among local, foreign and international norms and practices. The project tested existing hypotheses and generated new ones about selective adaptation and related concepts that inform the exchange of practices and norms about trade and human rights dispute resolution across cultures. The results of the research enabled interdisciplinary scholars and policymakers in Canada and internationally to understand better the requirements for effective cross-cultural dispute resolution, thus strengthening efforts to build a community of trade and human rights compliance in the Asia-Pacific region.
As part of its wrap-up activities, the Phase One APDR research project centred its focus on the publication of the APDR book series, knowledge dissemination events, and the correlative analysis of its second phase of Selective Adaptation Survey data on issues of human rights and international trade. Six APDR book volumes have been completed and these revolve around research themes associated broadly with the theme of Asia Pacific legal culture, international law, dispute resolution and globalization.