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Mediation Paradigms And Professional Identities: Can Mediators Activate A New Movement For Justice?, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This article, written early in the modern ADR era, provided a framework for developing the mediation field. It begins by elaborating William Simon’s critique of the “ideology of advocacy.” Simon argues that the adversary system is supposed to foster values of individuality, autonomy, responsibility, and dignity, but it often undermines those values in practice. This article catalogs a “parade of horribles” experienced by disputants, attorneys, judges, and the public. These include unequal access to justice, procedural rules that frustrate substantive justice, a narrow set of available remedies, a game psychology undermines respect for law and justice, parties’ alienating experience in …