How to Use the PDR Project
User’s Guide (adopted from Vol. 1, pp. xxiii-xxv)
The package that is the PDR Project consists of three items: the Case Study (Volume I), the Handbook (Volume II) and the USB Card, which you will find in the back cover of Volume I. In addition, there is the homepage www.private-dispute-resolution.com, which you are currently on. Due to its interactive nature, working with this package requires a special approach to achieve maximum learning efficiency. This approach is based on the fact that the books, USB Card and homepage can and should be used simultaneously. Please check the instructions on the USB Card and the home page for the software and hardware requirements.
Case Study
The Case Study is divided into three Parts, with twenty-nine Scenarios. Part One (Scenarios 1–5) deals with business negotiations, Part Two (Scenarios 6–15) with international business mediation and Part Three (Scenarios 16–29) with international commercial arbitration. The structure of each Scenario follows the same three-tier pattern:
- Facts (Volume I),
- Questions (Volume I),
- Answers (Volume II).
The Questions asked after the exposition of the factual background of each Scenario in Volume I are intended to prepare you for the discussion of the legal issues in the Answers to each of these Questions which you find in Volume II. The list of keywords which you find at the outset of each Scenario in the Case Study allows you to focus your thinking towards the respective problems while going through the facts of that Scenario.
Handbook
The Handbook (Volume II) can be used in various ways.
It is strongly suggested that you first familiarize yourself with the factual background of the Case Study in Volume I and try to find your own answers to the Questions for each Scenario before proceeding to the Answers given in the Handbook. This will ensure a deeper understanding of the dispute resolution process and of the many legal issues related thereto. It is not necessary to read the Answers to all Questions in order to understand the case. For the quick reader, a summary of the Answer is given in a box at the end of each Answer. However, it is strongly recommended that you work through all Questions and Answers of the First and Second Scenario, where the groundwork is laid for the understanding of the dispute between the parties.
The Handbook can also be used as a general reference manual for the law of international commercial arbitration. The Handbook has three key features which allow you to use it in this way. First, the table of contents contains summaries of the
problems to be discussed in the Answers of each Scenario. Secondly, you will find comprehensive lists of ‘Issues Covered’ in the Answers at the outset of each Scenario, which provide a more detailed overview of the issues which are dealt with in the Answers of that Scenario. Thirdly, the comprehensive keyword index in the back of Volume II assists you in finding answers to specific legal problems covered in the Handbook.
USB Card
The USB Card, which you will find in a plastic pocket in the back cover of Volume I, has a large number of interactive teaching and learning features which you can use simultaneously with the books or separately.
The main menu of the USB Card contains eight buttons: ‘Start’, ‘Parties & Persons’, ‘Case Development’, ‘Documents & Events’, ‘Materials’, ‘Videos’, ‘Skills & Advocacy’ and ‘Credits’.
The button ‘Parties & Persons’ provides an overview of the ‘actors’ who appear in the video section of the USB Card.
Under the button ‘Case Development’ you will find an animated graphical Case Development which enables you to better understand the sequence of events in the first two Scenarios of the Case Study. This tool should therefore be used simultaneously with the Case Study.
Under the button ‘Documents & Events’ you will find a chronological list of events for each Scenario, together with the relevant documents produced by the parties during the contract negotiations, the negotiations in the Hague, the mediation (fax messages, general contract conditions, etc.) and the arbitration (legal briefs, communications from the DIS Secretariat, orders of the Tribunal, awards, etc.) as PDF files. You should refer to these documents whenever the 
symbol indicates that the document is reproduced on the USB Card. You can also click from the Chronological Order of Events directly to the relevant document. Finally, you can print out all the documents and create your own file of the case.
Under the button ‘Materials’, you will find the laws, mediation and arbitration rules etc. which are referred to in the book. Again, the symbol , which you find both in the Case Study and the Handbook, indicates that the material can be found on the USB Card. You will also find further important materials which are not directly relevant for the case but are highly important for a deeper understanding of international mediation and arbitration practice. Under the ‘materials’ button, you also find a trial version of the decision tree/decision analysis software ‘TreeAge Pro’ which allows you to do your own calculations of settlement values in the dispute between NedTrans and ALT.
The Case Study contains various personal meetings and hearings, which are very hard to describe in written form. This applies to the negotiations between Mr Bakker and Mr Stutz in The Hague (Scenarios 4 and 5), the mediation between Mr Jaeggi and Mr Martens in Hamburg (Scenarios 7–14) and the hearing on the arbitral tribunal’s jurisdiction in Scenario 20 as well as the two-day hearing on the merits as the core part of the arbitration between the parties in Scenarios 24–26. For each of these Scenarios, you will find a sequence of videos for the relevant meeting or hearing under the button ‘Videos’. For each negotiation video, you will find a video comment by Professor Charles B. Craver from George Washington University, Washington D.C., USA, which you should watch only after you have seen the relevant negotiation video. Furthermore, it is recommended that, before watching the videos, you first read the Facts, Questions and Answers of these Scenarios. The video sequences contain subtitles which refer you to the paragraph numbers of the relevant parts of the Handbook.
Under the ‘Skills & Advocacy’ button you will find a variety of learning and teaching aids for negotiation, mediation and arbitration. The ‘Summary Guide to Effective Legal Negotiation’, which was prepared by Professor Charles B. Craver and is reproduced on the USB Card with his kind permission deserves special mention. It provides you with a comprehensive and in-depth learning and teaching device for almost every aspect of negotiation theory and practice.
Website
Finally, this website provides regular updates for the problems covered in the Handbook, reports about the ‘Making Of’ of the videos and about workshops and seminars conducted with this project worldwide. It also contains information about the CENTRAL/DIS Summer Academy, which takes place every year at the University of Cologne and which is also based on this project.