In fact, it has already been attempted: A team from Intel and the University of California, Berkeley, developed Dispute Finder, a plug-in for web browsers that was released in 2009 and would alert users when they opened a webpage with a disputed claim.
In the developing world, disputes over access and ownership of land are frequent.
But with the restructuring proposals still being developed, a dispute has already broken out in Washington over Amtrak and the council itself.
A dispute is developing between the nuclear industry and regulators, and among the regulators themselves, about the necessity of more safeguards at power plants, Eric Lipton and Matthew L. Wald write.
Mediated settlements tend to hold over time; and, if the parties do develop a later dispute, they are better equipped to resolve the dispute without resorting to the courts.
Tense negotiations in recent weeks ahead of the meeting followed 20 years of bitter disputes as developing countries have attempted to protect their fledgling agricultural and industrial sectors while allowing them access to markets in the rich west.
The committee also postponed for three days a showdown decision on Secretary General Kofi Annan's plan for overhauling the United Nations management, which is being disputed by developing nations that complain that it shifts power to the largest donor nations.
But the man's stupidity hid an important point: under the new system of government developing in Iraq, family disputes are increasingly settled not in state courts but by local tribal or religious authorities.
Whether you agree or not, there is no disputing that developing more and different status jobs would be better for New York, and the rest of the country, than fighting financial reform.
Priscilla Phelps, a senior adviser at the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, the panel that is developing reconstruction plans, said disputes over land ownership and delays getting money had kept much housing, beyond sporadic projects, from getting off the ground.
