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Full-Text Articles in Law
A Divided Nation: Political Polarization And Dispute Resolution, Lindsey Phipps
A Divided Nation: Political Polarization And Dispute Resolution, Lindsey Phipps
Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal
This article will discuss the causes and consequences of party polarization and propose that the legislative body work more collaboratively and cooperatively through direct implementation of alternative dispute resolution techniques such as negotiation and mediation in the legislative process. Part I will define political polarization, what it looks like today, its causes and its consequences. Part II will propose and explain the use of dispute resolution techniques and tactics, such as, negotiation, mediation and alternative dispute resolution to mitigate the effects of political polarization. Part III will conclude that dispute resolution techniques and tactics will mitigate the inadequacies created by …
Transforming News: How Mediation Principles Can Depolarize Public Talk, Carol Pauli
Transforming News: How Mediation Principles Can Depolarize Public Talk, Carol Pauli
Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal
News media interviews bring opposing voices into the public forum where, ideally, audience members can deliberate and reach democratic compromise. But in today's politically polarized atmosphere, partisans increasingly accuse each other of being a threat to the country, and prospects for compromise have suffered. Journalists have been urged to take a more affirmative role, promoting problem solving and opposing conflict. They have stopped short, citing professional norms that demand a stance of neutral detachment. This article turns to the principles of transformative mediation. Like journalism, it is detached from any goal of settlement. It aims instead at increasing the capacity …
Mediation – Its Potential And Its Limits: Developing An Effective Discourse On The Research And Practice Of Peacemaking, Dennis C. Jett
Mediation – Its Potential And Its Limits: Developing An Effective Discourse On The Research And Practice Of Peacemaking, Dennis C. Jett
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
This article looks at the various contributions to this issue of the Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs. The contributors have analyzed the potential and limits of mediation, but have focused on a number of different aspects of that process. The analytic research relevant to conflict situations will be most useful, however, if the recommendations offered for how to bring conflicts to an end can actually be of use to practitioners in the field. The approach of this article is therefore to consider how policymakers might employ these recommendations as they pursue the goal of peace. It …
Ethnic Conflict: An Organizational Perspective, Victor Asal, Jonathan Wilkenfeld
Ethnic Conflict: An Organizational Perspective, Victor Asal, Jonathan Wilkenfeld
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
To talk about the behavior of others is to generalize especially if that behavior is perceived to be negative. As researchers who have studied ethnic discrimination and ethnic conflict for close to two decades, we have noticed, anecdotally at least, that this penchant for generalization is rampant in discussions of ethnic politics. Journalists and academics tend to talk about one or another ethnic group’s involvement in violence without specifying a political organizational agent. This kind of generalization is a serious obstacle to understanding conflicts and identifying solutions because it prevents policymakers and academics from getting at the messy reality of …
When States Mediate, Molly M. Melin
When States Mediate, Molly M. Melin
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
Militarized conflict is one of the most devastating of all human activities. The international community’s response to conflict occurrence can significantly affect the number of casualties, the extent of resulting devastation and even the outcome of the conflict. State responses range from conflict management, whereby third parties actively engage in resolving the conflict; joining, whereby states become an additional disputant; or remaining uninvolved. One of the most common active third-party responses is to act as a mediator, a role using consensual, nonbinding and nonviolent means of conflict management and resolution. This paper explores the policy of state-led mediation, its strengths …
The Politics Of International Arbitration And Adjudication, Stephen E. Gent
The Politics Of International Arbitration And Adjudication, Stephen E. Gent
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
Arbitration and adjudication have proven to be effective means of producing long-lasting settlements on contentious issues, but states are generally reluctant to use such legal forms of dispute resolution, especially in resolving issues of national security. To understand when policymakers can and should promote the use of legal mechanisms, they need to understand the political reasons behind the reluctance of states to use these forums. This essay identifies five factors that significantly influence the willingness of states to relinquish decision control and pursue arbitration or adjudication: third-party bias, salience, uncertainty, bargaining power, and armed conflict. To promote the use of …
Using The Right Tool For The Job: Mediator Leverage And Conflict Resolution, Kyle Beardsley
Using The Right Tool For The Job: Mediator Leverage And Conflict Resolution, Kyle Beardsley
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
In international dispute mediation, a one-size-fits-all view of mediation may actually inhibit effective conflict resolution. Mediators must especially tailor the level of leverage to the needs of the situation. This essay first considers existing studies that have found both potential benefits and risks of heavy-handed third-party involvement as a conflict-management strategy. It then considers a few illustrative cases to demonstrate the importance of making sure that the tools of mediation fit the context. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of how sustained post-conflict peacekeeping and peacebuilding can reduce the risks of leverage in mediation.
Who Should Be At The Table?: Veto Players And Peace Processes In Civil War, David E. Cunningham
Who Should Be At The Table?: Veto Players And Peace Processes In Civil War, David E. Cunningham
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
Civil wars contain a set of actors that have the ability to block settlement and continue the war on their own. When they contain more “veto players,” conflicts are much longer and negotiations are more likely to break down. The rate of success of international efforts to resolve multi-party civil wars is much lower than when there is only one rebel group fighting the government. This article discusses implications for peacemakers designing responses to conflicts with multiple veto players. Negotiations in these conflicts are most likely to lead to a peace agreement that successfully ends the war if they include …
Deceptive Results: Why Mediation Appears To Fail But Actually Succeeds, Scott Sigmund Gartner
Deceptive Results: Why Mediation Appears To Fail But Actually Succeeds, Scott Sigmund Gartner
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
International disputes receiving third-party mediation are less likely to result in peace treaties than those negotiated bilaterally between the disputants. When belligerents do settle, mediated agreements are more likely to fail. Is mediation detrimental to conflict resolution? No. Third-party mediation represents a highly effective, but costly, means of peacemaking. Disputants recognize its costs and only employ mediation when they are unable to resolve a conflict between themselves, creating a “selection effect.” As a result, mediators are selected for the toughest cases – those least likely to end peacefully and mostly likely to result in fragile agreements. When the difficulty of …
Research On Bias In Mediation: Policy Implications, Isak Svensson
Research On Bias In Mediation: Policy Implications, Isak Svensson
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
One of the most important and disputed questions within the field of international mediation concerns the issue of bias. The question of bias cuts to the core of what mediation is and the ways in which mediators can help the parties reach peace. Focusing on research on the role of neutrality and bias in international peace diplomacy in civil wars, this article draws out the policy implications of my own empirically-based work on the role of bias in the mediation of internal armed conflicts. This article suggests that neutrality should not be part of the definition of mediators, …
The Lack Of Coordination In Diplomatic Peacemaking, Birger Heldt
The Lack Of Coordination In Diplomatic Peacemaking, Birger Heldt
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
The increased number of peacemaking actors during the past twenty years is accompanied by an increased amount of peacemaking, but also a low success rate. This article focuses on recent emerging conflicts. It finds that peacemaking is prevalent, but is often not coordinated with regard to choice of tools (mediation, arbitration, etc.), or the agenda or the issues of the talks. This lack of coordination has for many years been recognized as detrimental and may partly explain the low success rate. The article suggests that policymakers need to have a long-term strategy to address the coordination problem, part of which …
Translating Scholarship Into Policy, Scott Sigmund Gartner, Amy C. Gaudion
Translating Scholarship Into Policy, Scott Sigmund Gartner, Amy C. Gaudion
Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs
There is an ever widening gap between conflict resolution policy makers and scholars—a tragedy given practitioners’ dire need for new ideas to help resolve deadly conflicts and the growing knowledge researchers have to share. Research tends to swing like a pendulum between analytic and rigorous methods and accessible and relevant approaches. We reject this tradeoff. We believe that research can be simultaneously rigorous and relevant, and analytic and accessible. Given the devastating loss of life associated with armed conflict, the need for translating research results into policy prescriptions is especially strong in peacemaking. The goal of this issue of the …
Mediation Of Proposition 187: Creative Solution To An Old Problem? Or Quiet Death For Initiatives?, Nicole E. Lucy
Mediation Of Proposition 187: Creative Solution To An Old Problem? Or Quiet Death For Initiatives?, Nicole E. Lucy
Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal
The initiative Proposition 187 has been a catalyst for change. Supporters heralded it as the solution to "Save Our State" from the ills of illegal immigration. Those who opposed it, used Proposition 187 as a battle cry to mobilize a disenfranchised minority. Irrespective of ideology, Proposition 187 ended as no one could have predicted in November 1994 when it passed, 59% to 41%. When Governor Gray Davis inherited the Proposition 187 appeal from former Governor Pete Wilson, Governor Davis took the unprecedented step of seeking to resolve the conflict through mediation rather than actively defending Proposition 187 on appeal to …
Renegotiating Third World Debt , Arash S. Arabi
Renegotiating Third World Debt , Arash S. Arabi
Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal
The debt crisis facing the Third World is one so severe that it threatens to shatter the economy of countless nations and leaves the future of their lenders in doubt. The only viable solution is to come up with an "alternative" method of dispute resolution to deal with the debt crisis - one that is a cross between arbitration and mediation. A disinterested body should be created to recover some, or if possible, all of the outstanding loans owed to financial institutions, while alleviating the extreme hardships the debt and current debt repayment methods have inflicted. It should be noted, …
The State Legislatures And Unionism: A Survey Of State Legislation Relating To Problems Of Unionization And Collective Bargaining, Russell A. Smith, William J. Delancey
The State Legislatures And Unionism: A Survey Of State Legislation Relating To Problems Of Unionization And Collective Bargaining, Russell A. Smith, William J. Delancey
Michigan Law Review
'There ought to be a law!" So declared labor and its friends in the early days of the New Deal, and the Wagner Act and "little" Wagner acts (the "labor relations acts") were the legislative response. Now, some five years later, with Utopia in labor relations not yet at hand, the hue and cry goes up for still more law, both state and federal. In part this is the typical American reaction to particular irritations and assumes with the usual naiveté that there is a single legislative specific for every isolated ailment. In part it is the equally typical reaction …