Principle-based dispute resolution for consumer protection

Dispute resolution is an important aspect of consumer protection. In order to help protect consumers who are often the weak party at the bargaining table, we need to enhance the fairness and justice of dispute resolution. Principles including government laws, industrial self-regulation, and contracts agreed by parties involved should be the basic guidelines to attain a fair and justified solution. In this paper an expert system approach is used to construct a principle-based dispute resolution system that can determine which party is to be held liable or responsible for payments or adjustments resulting from the dispute. A home building dispute case is used to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed system and its possible benefit.