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Full-Text Articles in Law
You've Got Your Mother's Laugh: What Bankruptcy Mediation Can Learn From The Her/History Of Divorce And Child Custody Mediation, Nancy A. Welsh
You've Got Your Mother's Laugh: What Bankruptcy Mediation Can Learn From The Her/History Of Divorce And Child Custody Mediation, Nancy A. Welsh
Nancy Welsh
Due to our current deep economic woes, growing bankruptcy filings, and apparent legislative unwillingness to expand the number of judges, bankruptcy courts are exploring the use of mediation to help resolve adversary proceedings, negotiate elements of reorganizations, and deal with claims that cannot be heard directly in bankruptcy proceedings. In addition, mediation advocates have been consistent in urging greater use of the process to reduce debtors’ and claimants’ costs, bridge the jurisdictional and standing challenges that bankruptcies can pose, and offer claimants the opportunity to be heard and determine their own resolution of claims. At this point, the relatively few …
The Thinning Vision Of Self-Determination In Court-Connected Mediation: The Inevitable Price Of Institutionalization?, Nancy A. Welsh
The Thinning Vision Of Self-Determination In Court-Connected Mediation: The Inevitable Price Of Institutionalization?, Nancy A. Welsh
Nancy Welsh
Ethical codes for mediators describe party self-determination as “the fundamental principle of mediation,” regardless of the context within which the mediation is occurring. The definition of self-determination, however, is a matter of dispute. Based on a review of the debate surrounding the promulgation and revision of ethical codes for court-connected mediators in Florida and Minnesota, this Article demonstrates that a vision of self-determination anchored in party-centered empowerment is yielding to a vision that is more reflective of the norms and traditional practices of lawyers and judges, as well as the courts’ strong orientation to efficiency and closure of cases through …
The Thoughtful Integration Of Mediation Into Bilateral Investment Treaty Arbitration, Nancy A. Welsh, Andrea Kupfer Schneider
The Thoughtful Integration Of Mediation Into Bilateral Investment Treaty Arbitration, Nancy A. Welsh, Andrea Kupfer Schneider
Nancy Welsh
While the current system of investment treaty arbitration has definitely improved upon the “gunboat diplomacy” used at times to address disputes between states and foreign investors, there are signs that reform is needed: states and investors increasingly express concerns regarding the costs associated with the arbitration process, some states refuse to comply with arbitral awards, other states hesitate to sign new bilateral investment treaties, and citizens have begun to engage in popular unrest at the prospect of investment treaty arbitration. As a result, both investors and states are advocating for the use of mediation to supplement investor-state arbitration. This Article …
The Place Of Court-Connected Mediation In A Democratic Justice System, Nancy A. Welsh
The Place Of Court-Connected Mediation In A Democratic Justice System, Nancy A. Welsh
Nancy Welsh
A justice system, and the processes located within it, ought to deliver justice. That seems simple enough. But, of course, delivering justice is never so simple. Justice and the systems that serve it are the creatures of context.
This Article considers mediation as just one innovation within the much larger evolution of the judicial system of the United States. First, this Article outlines how the values of democratic governance undergird our traditional picture of the American justice system, presumably because the invocation of such values helps the system to deliver something that will be respected by the nation’s citizens as …
Stepping Back Through The Looking Glass: Real Conversations With Real Disputants About Institutionalized Mediation And Its Value, Nancy A. Welsh
Stepping Back Through The Looking Glass: Real Conversations With Real Disputants About Institutionalized Mediation And Its Value, Nancy A. Welsh
Nancy Welsh
This Article describes what a group of real disputants perceives as most valuable about agency-connected mediation before, soon after, and eighteen months after they participated in the process. The Article is based primarily upon qualitative data from in-depth interviews with parents and school officials who participated in special education mediation sessions. Though the specific context of these interviews is obviously important, these disputants and their disputes share many commonalities with disputants and disputes in other contexts and, as a result, these disputants' views have relevance for the broader field of mediation.
These interviews suggest that both before and after disputants …
Musings On Mediation, Kleenex, And (Smudged) White Hats, Nancy A. Welsh
Musings On Mediation, Kleenex, And (Smudged) White Hats, Nancy A. Welsh
Nancy Welsh
This Essay speculates on the global future of mediation. It anticipates that mediation’s popularity will continue to grow both in the U.S. and abroad particularly as courts continue to encourage and institutionalize the process. Meanwhile, the Essay acknowledges the existence and continuing development of a relatively small cadre of elite lawyers and retired judges who serve as private mediators in large, complex matters.
The Essay also raises concerns, though, regarding the current lack of clarity in the goals and procedural characteristics that define mediation. The Essay asserts that such lack of clarity invites abuse of the mediation privilege and exclusionary …
Look Before You Leap And Keep On Looking: Lessons From The Institutionalization Of Court-Connected Mediation, Bobbi Mcadoo, Nancy A. Welsh
Look Before You Leap And Keep On Looking: Lessons From The Institutionalization Of Court-Connected Mediation, Bobbi Mcadoo, Nancy A. Welsh
Nancy Welsh
This article will use the institutionalization of general civil mediation into the courts as a case study, with both hopeful and cautionary lessons for policy makers. This article will (1) examine the goals created for court-connected ADR; (2) assess to what extent court-connected mediation has achieved these goals, from the perspective of judges, lawyers, and parties; and (3) and propose reforms of court-connected mediation to better ensure the achievement of justice.
Making Deals In Court-Connected Mediation: What's Justice Got To Do With It?, Nancy A. Welsh
Making Deals In Court-Connected Mediation: What's Justice Got To Do With It?, Nancy A. Welsh
Nancy Welsh
When mediation was first introduced to the courts, the process was hailed as “alternative.” Mediation gave disputants the opportunity to discuss and resolve their dispute themselves; the role of the third party was to facilitate the disputants’ negotiations, not to dictate the outcome; and because the disputants were able to focus on their underlying interests in mediation, the process could result in creative, customized solutions. The picture of mediation is changing, however, as the process settles into its role as a tool for the resolution of personal injury, contract, and other nonfamily cases on the courts’ civil dockets. Attorneys dominate …
Integrating "Alternative" Dispute Resolution Into Bankruptcy: As Simple (And Pure) As Motherhood And Apple Pie?, Nancy A. Welsh
Integrating "Alternative" Dispute Resolution Into Bankruptcy: As Simple (And Pure) As Motherhood And Apple Pie?, Nancy A. Welsh
Nancy Welsh
Today, there can be little doubt that “alternative” dispute resolution is anything but alternative. Nonetheless, many judges, lawyers (and law students) do not truly understand the dispute resolution processes that are available and how they should be used. In the shadow of the current economic crisis, this lack of knowledge is likely to have negative consequences, particularly in those areas of practice such as bankruptcy and foreclosure in which clients, lawyers, regulators, and courts work under pressure, often with inadequate time and financial resources to permit careful analysis of procedural options. Potential negative effects can include: (1) impairment of a …
I Could Have Been A Contender: Summary Jury Trial As A Means To Overcome Iqbal's Negative Effects Upon Pre-Litigation Communication, Negotiation And Early, Consensual Dispute Resolution, Nancy A. Welsh
Nancy Welsh
With its recent decisions in Ashcroft v. Iqbal and Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, the Supreme Court may be intentionally or unintentionally “throwing the fight,” at least in the legal contests between many civil rights claimants and institutional defendants. The most obvious feared effect is reduction of civil rights claimants’ access to the expressive and coercive power of the courts. Less obviously, the Supreme Court may be effectively undermining institutions’ motivation to negotiate, mediate - or even communicate with and listen to - such claimants before they initiate legal action. Thus, the Supreme Court’s recent decisions have the potential to deprive …
Becoming "Investor-State Mediation", Nancy A. Welsh, Andrea Kupfer Schneider
Becoming "Investor-State Mediation", Nancy A. Welsh, Andrea Kupfer Schneider
Nancy Welsh
While the current system of investment treaty arbitration has definitely improved upon the “gunboat diplomacy” used at times to address disputes between states and foreign investors, there are signs that reform is needed. Increasingly, states and investors express concerns regarding the costs associated with the arbitration process; some states are refusing to comply with arbitral awards; other states now hesitate to sign new bilateral investment treaties; and citizens have begun to engage in popular unrest at the prospect of investment treaty arbitration. As a result, both investors and states are advocating for the use of mediation to supplement investor-state arbitration. …
Transforming News: How Mediation Principles Can Depolarize Public Talk, Carol Pauli
Transforming News: How Mediation Principles Can Depolarize Public Talk, Carol Pauli
Carol Pauli
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 …
A Consideration Of Alternatives To Divorce Litigation, Thomas E. Carbonneau
A Consideration Of Alternatives To Divorce Litigation, Thomas E. Carbonneau
Thomas Carbonneau
This article argues for the need to inform divorce proceedings with a sense of the human reality of matrimonial breakdown. Part one assesses the adequacy of the existing adjudicatory approach to divorce by focusing upon the hiatus between the legal approach to divorce and the emotional content of divorce disputes. Part two lays the foundation for constructive change, providing a statistical portrait of divorce in contemporary America. Part four discusses mediation and suggests that it is a more viable alternative mechanism to divorce litigation. Part five discusses the implementation of a judicial arbitration structure.
News Media As Mediators (Cardozo J. Conflict Resol.), Carol Pauli
News Media As Mediators (Cardozo J. Conflict Resol.), Carol Pauli
Carol Pauli
This paper explores journalism as a potential method of conflict resolution. Part I compares the norms and practices of journalism to those of facilitative mediation. Part II draws additional parallels between some aspects of journalism and two other forms of dispute resolution: transformative mediation and adjudication. Part III suggests some areas for encouragement and some areas for caution as peace journalists import conflict resolution techniques into news reporting and writing.
Dr Ethics Book Brings It All Together, Jonathan R. Cohen
Dr Ethics Book Brings It All Together, Jonathan R. Cohen
Jonathan R. Cohen
Dispute resolution practice has changed dramatically over the past several decades. The traditional litigation model has increasingly given way to a “multi-door” vision of varied dispute resolution practices. With that functional change in how we process disputes has come a pressing need to address the varied ethical challenges of these varied practices. Dispute Resolution Ethics is a marvelous contribution toward that effort.
Decision-Making In Mediation: The New Old Grid And The New New Grid System, Leonard L. Riskin
Decision-Making In Mediation: The New Old Grid And The New New Grid System, Leonard L. Riskin
Leonard L Riskin
This Article reviews the author's previous mediator-orientation models and proposes a new system for understanding the range of mediator orientations based on substantive, procedural, and meta-procedural decision-making grids.
The Represented Client In A Settlement Conference: The Lessons Of G. Heileman Brewing Co. V. Joseph Oat Corp., Leonard L. Riskin
The Represented Client In A Settlement Conference: The Lessons Of G. Heileman Brewing Co. V. Joseph Oat Corp., Leonard L. Riskin
Leonard L Riskin
This Article sets out various perspectives that litigants, lawyers and judges commonly bring to settlement conferences, perspectives on lawyer-client relations, negotiation, and the role of the judicial host. In examining the opinions in the Heileman case, along with other materials, the Article attempts to uncover the underlying assumptions about the settlement conference that informed the behavior of the judges and lawyers in that case, arguing that Heileman's explanation lies in the lawyers' and judges' tendency to embrace one of two radically different visions of the settlement conference. The Article then catalogs the advantages and disadvantages of involving clients in settlement …
Teaching And Learning From The Mediations In Barry Werth's Damages, Leonard L. Riskin
Teaching And Learning From The Mediations In Barry Werth's Damages, Leonard L. Riskin
Leonard L Riskin
This essay is based primarily on materials the author developed for courses taught at the University of Missouri-Columbia, School of Law, in the winter 2002 and 2003 semesters, based on Barry Werth's book, "Damages."
Understanding Mediators' Orientations, Strategies, And Techniques: A Grid For The Perplexed, Leonard L. Riskin
Understanding Mediators' Orientations, Strategies, And Techniques: A Grid For The Perplexed, Leonard L. Riskin
Leonard L Riskin
This Article begins with a review of previous efforts to categorize mediation and their shortfalls, including the lack of any widely-shared comprehensive method for describing the various approaches to mediation practice. The Article then offers a new "grid" system for classifying mediator orientations, strategies, and techniques and describes the potential utility of the grid, particularly its effectiveness in selecting mediators.
Crime Victims And Offenders Face To Face: An Overview Of The Tdcj Victim Offender Mediation/Dialogue, Richard B. Keeton
Crime Victims And Offenders Face To Face: An Overview Of The Tdcj Victim Offender Mediation/Dialogue, Richard B. Keeton
Richard B. Keeton, Esq.
This paper focuses on the Victim Offender Mediation/Dialogue program unique to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Victim offender mediation is "a process that provides interested victims an opportunity to meet their offender, in a safe and structured setting, and engage in a mediated discussion of the crime." The goal is to hold offenders directly accountable for their actions while providing support and assistance to the victims. With the assistance of a trained mediator, the victim is able to tell the offender about the crime's physical, emotional, and financial impact, while receiving answers to lingering questions about the crime and …
Managing Inner And Outer Conflict: Selves, Subpersonalities, And Internal Family Systems, Leonard L. Riskin
Managing Inner And Outer Conflict: Selves, Subpersonalities, And Internal Family Systems, Leonard L. Riskin
Leonard L Riskin
This article describes potential benefits of considering certain processes within an individual that take place in connection with external conflict as if they might be negotiations or other processes that are routinely used to address external disputes, such as mediation or adjudication. In order to think about internal processes in this way, it is necessary to employ a model of the mind that includes entities capable of engaging in such processes. The Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, developed by Richard C. Schwartz, works well for this purpose. The IFS model is grounded on the construct that the mind is composed …
The Contemplative Lawyer: On The Potential Contributions Of Mindfulness Meditation To Law Students, Lawyers, And Their Clients, Leonard L. Riskin
The Contemplative Lawyer: On The Potential Contributions Of Mindfulness Meditation To Law Students, Lawyers, And Their Clients, Leonard L. Riskin
Leonard L Riskin
This Article proposes that introducing mindfulness meditation into the legal profession may improve practitioners' well-being and performance and weaken the dominance of adversarial mind-sets. By enabling some lawyers to make more room for - and act from - broader and deeper perspectives, mindfulness can help lawyers provide more appropriate service (especially through better listening and negotiation) and gain more personal satisfaction from their work. Part I of this article describes a number of problems associated with law school and law practice. Part II sets forth a variety of ways in which lawyers, law schools, and professional organizations have tried to …
Creating And Certifying The Professional Mediator -- Education And Credentialing, Joseph B. Stulberg, Donald C. Peters, Tracy L. Allen, Judith P. Meyer
Creating And Certifying The Professional Mediator -- Education And Credentialing, Joseph B. Stulberg, Donald C. Peters, Tracy L. Allen, Judith P. Meyer
Don Peters
Existing and pending law school mediation programs, post-graduate mediator training programs, mentorship programs, credentialing movements, and continuing mediation education were examined by a panel and speakers directly involved in those fields. Are we effectively training new mediators in law schools and post-graduate programs? Should we, and how can we, "credential" mediators? Do good mediators need to be re-trained? How would continuing mediation educational requirements be implemented?
It Takes Two To Tango, And To Mediate: Legal Cultural And Other Factors Influencing United States And Latin American Lawyers’ Resistance To Mediating Commercial Disputes, Don C. Peters
Don Peters
This article examines legal cultural and other factors influencing the resistance to mediating commercial disputes displayed by U.S. and Latin American lawyers. After surveying current contexts in which commercial mediation occurs in the United States and in Latin American countries and summarizing data regarding commercial actors’ knowledge of the benefits of mediating, it analyzes the relatively infrequent use of mediation despite its potential advantages over adjudicating. Focusing on lawyers, the article next explores factors that influence U.S. and Latin American lawyers when they converse with commercial clients about selecting dispute resolution methods.
To Sue Is Human; To Settle Divine: Intercultural Collaborations To Expand The Use Of Mediation In Costa Rica, Donald C. Peters
To Sue Is Human; To Settle Divine: Intercultural Collaborations To Expand The Use Of Mediation In Costa Rica, Donald C. Peters
Don Peters
Virtually all societies have developed non-adjudicative methods to resolve disputes. Third party intervention to help resolve disputes consensually, typically called mediation or conciliation, occurs in all cultures throughout the world. It now occurs in Costa Rica only voluntarily and primarily in family, community, labor, agricultural, and trade contexts. Connecting mediation or conciliation to court systems provides a comparatively new use of third party interventions not involving adjudication through arbitration or litigation. This typically occurs by referring matters for mediation services provided by state-funded programs, private centers, and private mediators. Florida, the first American state to authorize courts to order mediation …
Advantages And Disadvantages Of Mediation In Probate, Trust, And Guardianship Matters , Mary F. Radford
Advantages And Disadvantages Of Mediation In Probate, Trust, And Guardianship Matters , Mary F. Radford
Mary F. Radford
Mediation is the ADR process by which a neutral third party works with disputants to reach a mutually agreeable resolution. Mediation is arguably the oldest and most popular ADR technique in use today. Part I of this essay discusses the commonly accepted advantages of mediation as an alternative to litigation, and, in some instances, questions whether those advantages become disadvantages in the context of probate, trust, and guardianship cases. Part II examines the use of mediation as a component of the actual estate planning process rather than as an alternative to litigation.
Final Offer Arbitration, Harold I. Abramson
Time To Try Mediation Of International Commercial Disputes, Harold Abramson
Time To Try Mediation Of International Commercial Disputes, Harold Abramson
Harold I. Abramson
No abstract provided.
Bargaining In The Shadow Of The Best-Interests Standard: The Close Connection Between Substance And Process In Resolving Divorce-Related Parenting Disputes, Jana B. Singer
Jana B. Singer
This essay, written for a Symposium celebrating the child custody scholarship of Professor Robert Mnookin, examines the close connection between changes in substantive child custody doctrine and changes in custody dispute resolution processes over the past 30 years. Part I of the article explores how the widespread adoption of an unmediated “best interest of the child” standard, and the ensuing rejection of the sole custody paradigm, precipitated a shift from adversarial to non-adversarial resolution of divorce-related parenting disputes. Part II of the essay reverses the direction of the analytic lens and considers how the shift from adversarial to non-adversarial dispute …
Resolving Workplace Disputes In The United States: The Growth Of Alternative Dispute Resolution In Employment Relations, David B. Lipsky, Ronald L. Seeber
Resolving Workplace Disputes In The United States: The Growth Of Alternative Dispute Resolution In Employment Relations, David B. Lipsky, Ronald L. Seeber
David B Lipsky
[Excerpt] For more than a decade a "quiet revolution" has been occurring m the American system of justice. There has been a dramatic growth in the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) to resolve disputes that might otherwise be handled through litigation. We define ADR as the use of any form of mediation or arbitration as a substitute for the public judicial or administrative process available to resolve a dispute (Lipsky and Seeber, 1998A}. In the United States mediation, arbitration, and their variants ordinarily are private processes in which the disputants themselves select, hire, and pay the third-party neutral who …