dispute resolution?

["James J. O'Donnell" <jod@georgetown.edu>]

We continue to pursue the issue of access to the L'Annee Philologique
database.  Listmembers will recall that the publisher's insistence on
French jurisdiction for all legal claims is a showstopper for most
American users.

I write to ask views on this possibility:  what would be the possibility
of a contract in which both parties agreed to forego litigation in favor
of an agreed form of dispute resolution?  In other words, both sides agree
to a non-judicial third party mediation, with as ultimate sanction the
agreement to end the contract if no resolution is possible through
mediation.  Given that the size of claims under this particular license is
unlikely to be large (and the number unlikely to exceed zero, as a matter
of fact, but very very unlikely to get out of the single digits), such a
procedure might be entirely satisfactory as far as resolving issues goes.  
Would it succeed in making a license signable by American (and publicly
funded) institutions?

Jim O'Donnell
President-Elect, American Philological Association