Law Commons^™

Adr: Disputing With A Modern Face, Or Bargaining For The Bargain Impaired?, Robert J. Condlin

Faculty Scholarship

The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) movement might turn out to be one of the most important chapters in the history of the American judicial system. Or, it might not. In its most grandiose form, ADR turns disputing on its head, transferring control over outcome from third-party decision-makers to the disputants themselves, and defining disputing procedure in ad hoc, party-constructed guidelines tailored to the circumstances rather than fixed, generic, and categorical rules applicable uniformly in all situations. In its less grandiose form, ADR simply institutionalizes a system of multi-party bargaining in which third-party neutrals help disputants identify individual interests and find …