Law Commons^™

Conflict Resolution And Systemic Change, Howard Gadlin, Susan P. Sturm

Faculty Scholarship

Over the last fifty years, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) has become a fixture of the conflict resolution landscape. As its label suggests, ADR is generally viewed as an alternative to adjudication, developed in response to litigation's liabilities-its expense, delay, adversarialism, and limits as a tool for addressing complex problems. In contrast, ADR's value rests in its capacity to produce prompt, fair, and efficient resolutions that satisfy the disputants.

ADR proponents and critics alike presuppose that the benefits of ADR are achieved at inevitable costs. The assumption is that informal conflict resolution necessarily resolves disputes for the disputants and no one …