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Dispute Resolution and Arbitration

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2012

Ethics

Articles 1 - 11 of 11

Full-Text Articles in Law

Let's Put Ourselves Out Of Business: On Respect, Responsibility, And Dialogue In Dispute Resolution, Jonathan R. Cohen May 2012

Let's Put Ourselves Out Of Business: On Respect, Responsibility, And Dialogue In Dispute Resolution, Jonathan R. Cohen

Jonathan R. Cohen

This Essay works in two steps. I want to daydream with you about the future, or what I hope will someday be the future, of our dispute resolution movement. I want to then use these imaginings to reflect upon where we are today. I want to suggest something that may at first seem odd: Our ultimate goal should be to put ourselves, or virtually put ourselves, out of business. Eventually, I hope the time will come when we live in a society where the expert services of dispute resolution professionals, including not only lawyers and judges but also mediators and …


The Culture Of Legal Denial, Jonathan R. Cohen May 2012

The Culture Of Legal Denial, Jonathan R. Cohen

Jonathan R. Cohen

The goals of this essay are twofold. The first is to examine critically the practice of lawyers assisting clients in denying harms they commit and suggest some ways of changing that practice. Lawyers commonly presume that their clients' interests are best served by denial. Yet such a presumption is not warranted. Given the moral, psychological, relational, and sometimes even economic risks of denial to the injurer, lawyers should consider discussing responsibility taking more often with clients. The second is to explore several structural or systemic factors that may reinforce the practice of denial seen day in and day out within …


When People Are The Means: Negotiating With Respect, Jonathan R. Cohen May 2012

When People Are The Means: Negotiating With Respect, Jonathan R. Cohen

Jonathan R. Cohen

Most scholarship on negotiation ethics has focused on the topics of deception and disclosure. In this Article, I argue for considering a related, but distinct, ethical domain within negotiation ethics. That domain is the ethics of orientation. In contrast to most forms of human interaction, a clear purpose of negotiation is to get the other party to take an action on one's behalf, or at least to explore that possibility. This gives rise to a core ethical tension in negotiation that I call the object-subject tension: how does one reconcile the fact that the other party is a potential means …


Legislating Apology: The Pros And Cons, Jonathan R. Cohen May 2012

Legislating Apology: The Pros And Cons, Jonathan R. Cohen

Jonathan R. Cohen

Should apologies be admissible into evidence as proof of fault in civil cases? While this question is a simple one, its potential ramifications are great, and legislative and scholarly interest in the admissibility of apologies has exploded. Shortly after the idea of excluding apologies from admissibility into evidence was raised in academic circles three years ago, it rapidly spread to the policy arena. For example, California and Florida enacted laws in 2000 and 2001 respectively excluding from admissibility apologetic expressions of sympathy ("I'm sorry that you are hurt") but not fault-admitting apologies ("I'm sorrythat I injured you") after accidents. Eight …


Apology And Organizations: Exploring An Example From Medical Practice, Jonathan R. Cohen May 2012

Apology And Organizations: Exploring An Example From Medical Practice, Jonathan R. Cohen

Jonathan R. Cohen

In this Article, I focus on injuries committed by members of organizations, such as corporations, and examine distinct issues raised by apology in the organizational setting. In particular, I consider: (i) the process of learning to prevent future errors; (ii) the divergent interests stemming from principal-agent tensions in employment, risk preferences and sources of insurance; (iii) the non-pecuniary benefits to corporate morale, productivity and reputation; (iv) the standing and scope of apologies; and (v) the articulation of policies toward injuries to others.


The Immorality Of Denial, Jonathan R. Cohen May 2012

The Immorality Of Denial, Jonathan R. Cohen

Jonathan R. Cohen

This article is the first of a two-part series critically examining the role of lawyers in assisting clients in denying responsibility for harms they have caused. If a person injures another, the moral response is for the injurer actively to take responsibility for what he has done. In contrast, the common practice within our legal culture is for injurers to deny responsibility for harms they commit. The immoral, in other words, has become the legally normal. In this Article, Professor Cohen analyzes the moral foundations of responsibility-taking. He also explores the moral, psychological, and spiritual risks to injurers who knowingly …


Collaborative Lawyering: A Closer Look At An Emerging Practice, William H. Schwab Mar 2012

Collaborative Lawyering: A Closer Look At An Emerging Practice, William H. Schwab

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

A critical analysis of collaborative law (CL) is only now beginning, and should be based on actual, not hypothetical information about the practice and its impact on clients as courts, the bar, and the public begin to digest the idea of CL. This Article intends to present a more comprehensive picture of collaborative practice than is currently available, to better inform the ongoing conversation about what role CL will play in the legal system. Toward that end, the following sketches some basic questions about CL, and provides some preliminary answers. Part I recounts the origin of CL and introduces the …


Mediation By Judges: A New Phenomenon In The Transformation Of Justice , Louise Otis, Eric H. Reiter Mar 2012

Mediation By Judges: A New Phenomenon In The Transformation Of Justice , Louise Otis, Eric H. Reiter

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article has three principal parts. In the first, we present an overview of judicial mediation and how it responds to some of the perceived problems with the classical model of adjudication. In this analysis, we draw especially on the experience with judicial mediation at the appellate level at the Quebec Court of Appeal. In the second part, we examine the unfolding of the mediation process itself, using an annotated guide to judicial mediation to address broader issues of both practical and theoretical concern. In the third part, we consider the crucial question of ethics in mediation, signaling some of …


Illusory Ethics: Legal Barriers To An Ombudsman's Compliance With Accepted Ethical Standards, Scott C. Van Soye Feb 2012

Illusory Ethics: Legal Barriers To An Ombudsman's Compliance With Accepted Ethical Standards, Scott C. Van Soye

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

There are five general types of ombudsmen: classical, executive, corporate, educational, and newspaper. The first two types are appointed by governmental entities, while the last three are associated with private organizations. The American Bar Association has identified a sixth type of ombudsman, the advocate, whose responsibility it is to protect a vulnerable population, such as children or residents of long-term care facilities. But because the advocate ombudsman is appointed by the government, he or she is either a legislative or an executive ombudsman, and there is no reason to create a separate category. As the ombudsman concept has spread, professional …


The Strategic Relationship Between Ethics And Dispute Resolution: What Every Ceo Should Know, Mary L. Walker, R. Philip Deavel Feb 2012

The Strategic Relationship Between Ethics And Dispute Resolution: What Every Ceo Should Know, Mary L. Walker, R. Philip Deavel

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article advocates that there is a dynamic relationship between a values-based ethics program and a commitment to dispute resolution that can revolutionize the way we think about both. The United States Air Force is a global organization with many relationships, including those with other governments, other federal agencies, corporate contractors and its members and employees. Hence, these concepts are not academic to us-they are the lifeblood that allows us to successfully accomplish our mission. But they also have implications for our corporate partners. Why would we have an interest in how private corporations approach the subjects of ethics and …


Joining Forces In Search For Answers: The Use Of Therapeutic Jurisprudence In The Realm Of Mediation Ethics , Omer Shapira Feb 2012

Joining Forces In Search For Answers: The Use Of Therapeutic Jurisprudence In The Realm Of Mediation Ethics , Omer Shapira

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The Mediation process is part of the Alternative Dispute Resolution movement (ADR) whose modern history begins at the end of the 1970s. Therapeutic Jurisprudence (TJ) is a younger movement which has started to gain recognition in the 1990s. The two schools of thought share similarities, a fact which makes their study beneficial for both. This article explores some of those similarities in order to evaluate the possible contribution of TJ to mediation ethics. What is sought is a normative reading of the mediation process with the aid of the therapeutic lens. Such reading suggests, so it is argued, behavioral guidelines …