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The Role Of Law In The Negotiated Settlement Of International Disputes, James K. Irvin

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

One of the chief functions of any legal system is to provide the machinery for settling disputes between members of the society which the system serves. No legal system can be expected to solve all such disputes, but law can create an atmosphere in which the parties themselves may effect, without bloodshed, the resolution, minimization or avoidance of disputes. The disputants may choose an arbiter or conciliator to reach a settlement for them, or they may bargain and compromise until they find a common basis for an agreement ending the dispute. The latter process, called negotiation, is the most effective …