Fred’s latest article, "Virtual Justice as Reality: Making the Resolution of E-Commerce Disputes More Convenient, Legitimate, Efficient, and Secure," will be the lead article in The University of Illinois Journal of Law, Technology & Policy in the 2009 Spring edition. The journal is a peer-reviewed, joint publication of the University of Illinois College of Law, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs.

Fred’s article addresses the lack of a comprehensive online justice system for e-commerce disputes. Adjudicating such disputes in physical brick-and-mortar courtrooms is often very expensive, time-consuming, and impractical. Personal jurisdiction and conflicts of law issues present difficult legal quagmires because an online transaction often defies physical location-based jurisprudence. The article argues for a paradigm shift away from geographical location-based lawsuits and toward using the same medium that makes e-commerce transactions possible in the first place – the internet. The internet must be perceived as a safe and legitimate global marketplace, where buyers and sellers from different states or countries can have meaningful access to convenient legal enforcement mechanisms that adequately protect their legal rights and minimize their economic risks. The article also contains a corresponding demonstration website so that the reader can experience a comprehensive Online Dispute Resolution system uniquely adapted to fairly and efficiently resolve e-commerce disputes in an accessible, cost-effective online forum.