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== Lesson 14a -  Arbitration - More details on the case file  ==

''This page contains some proposals on what must/should/can be included in a case file. It should be
discussed on the Arbitration List, and then probably be merged into Lesson 14. Until then use these
ideas at your own risk. BernhardFröhlich''

=== Purpose of the public part ===

The public part of an Arbitration Case file tries to fulfill the following goals:

  * Allow involved or otherwise interested parties to judge progress and current state of the case.
  * Support the CAcert principle of Openness and Transparency, by publishing the Ruling of the case and enable "the average CAcert member" to comprehend why the Arbitrator made the ruling in this way.
  * Assist research of other Arbitrators who are working on similar or related cases.

=== Purpose of the private part ===

The obvious purpose of the private part is to record details of the case which must be available for working on and executing the case, but should not be publicly accessible.

Following the currently most widely used (but not undisputed) practice this includes full names and contact adresses of the parties. Other examples include technical details on security incidents which might be exploited more easily if commonly known.

Furthermore the private part may be used to record details of the case so that another Arbitrator can take over the case if the original Arbitrator is not available for a handover. This is good practice though not always possible. Especially if another Arbitrator or CAcert sysop personnel is involved in the case as party, it might be more appropriate to keep detailed documentation elsewhere.

=== Conclusions ===

To fulfill the purposes mentioned above, the public part should contain:

  * Statements made by a party (timestamp and a short content summary), in the History section
  * Requests made by the Arbitrator, to the parties or to anyone else (Support, Witnesses), and answers to this requests, in the History sections
  . '' some indication of level of detail that should be included in the above two sections might be useful.  Examples?? - Alex Robertson (2014-02-09)''
  * Facts which are relevant for the ruling, in the Details sections (see [[Arbitrations/Training/Lesson13|Lesson 13]]
  * The ruling itself (of course)
  * The deliberation of the ruling. Maybe the most important part, it should make clear where arguments or goals were balanced, and which facts were considered most important.
  * Requests to execute the ruling (if applicable), and responses, in the Execution section

Note that it is not necessary to include every discussion or received advice in the case file. But if you discover a relevant fact in the process at least the fact should be named.


== Related Cases ==
 . [[Arbitrations/a20120627.1|Challenge Sealing of a20120506.1]]
 . [[Arbitrations/a20120616.1|Request to unseal a20120506.1]]
'' The two cases are about sealing a case - this is a totally different issue and is explicitly allowed for under DRP - the more general question is about how much of a more general case could/should/ought to be made public! - Alex Robertson (2014-02-09) ''

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 . CategoryArbitration
 . CategoryArbitrationsTraining