Law Commons^™

Magistrate Judges, Settlement, And Procedural Justice, Nancy A. Welsh

Faculty Scholarship

This Article begins, in Part I, with an overview of magistrate judges’ history and role generally, including a discussion of the mechanism of “blind consent” that must be undertaken before a magistrate judge may conduct a trial. Part I then turns to magistrate judges’ role in settlement and ADR, outlines the procedural and ethical rules governing judges’ role in settlement, and highlights research revealing lawyers’ concerns regarding judges’ role in settlement. In Part II, the Article provides a brief overview of mediation in the federal courts and considers the relationship between judge-hosted settlement sessions and mediation. With this background regarding …

Where The “Puck” Is Going – And What Faculty Should Do To Help Students Get There, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post summarizes presentations and discussion at a program of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s annual Legal Educators’ Colloquium. The conversation addressed anticipated changes that might affect legal and dispute resolution practice, how practice might change as a result, and how these changes could affect people’s teaching.

Integrated Conflict Management Design Workbook : كتاب التصميم المتكامل لإدارة الخلافات (Arabic), Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Mediation Series is a set of three guides that will help policy-makers, organizations and practitioners build mediation practice and culture. The Series include Mediation Essentials, Integrated Conflict Management Design Workbook, and Making Mediation Law. Mediation Essentials serves as a complete orientation guide to ADR in general and to mediation. Making Mediation Law offers a robust perspective on how to design mediation policy and legislation. Guidance in this area is in high demand and scarce (besides the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Conciliation and its Guide, there aren’t many other comprehensive resources). We hope that Making Mediation Law will effectively …

Integrated Conflict Management Design Workbook : كتاب التصميم المتكامل لإدارة الخلافات (Arabic), Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Mediation Series is a set of three guides that will help policy-makers, organizations and practitioners build mediation practice and culture. The Series include Mediation Essentials, Integrated Conflict Management Design Workbook, and Making Mediation Law. Mediation Essentials serves as a complete orientation guide to ADR in general and to mediation. Making Mediation Law offers a robust perspective on how to design mediation policy and legislation. Guidance in this area is in high demand and scarce (besides the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Conciliation and its Guide, there aren’t many other comprehensive resources). We hope that Making Mediation Law will effectively …

Mediation Essentials: The Definitive Deskbook, Nadja Alexander, Jean-Francois Roberge, Fatma Ibrahim

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Mediation is one of the most frequently used alternative dispute resolution processes worldwide. Mediation provides faster, cheaper, and better solutions than a traditional court decision can. Benefits are important for individuals as well as for disputing businesses from the private sector and for public sector institutions. Understanding the principles, process, and skills of mediation is essential for anyone whose professional role involves managing disputes of any kind. Mediation Essentials comprises five chapters as follows: 1) Chapter 1 is about How to Manage and Control Disputes and Alternative Dispute Resolution; Chapter 2 describes on How to Make the Most of Mediation; …

Of Grids And Gatekeepers: The Socioeconomics Of Mediation, Robert Rubinson

All Faculty Scholarship

Mediation scholars have long debated which mediator “style” or “model” is correct. The origin of the debate arises from a foundational piece of scholarship by Leonard Riskin. Riskin proposed a “grid” of mediator orientations comprised of what came to be known as “facilitative mediation” and “evaluative mediation.” A more recent addition to the grid—and one that is almost universally recognized as a distinct model—is “transformative mediation.” These three models are so embedded in the literature of mediation that they have been called “the big three.” The influence of Riskin’s work cannot be overstated. It has resonated within the community of …

Occam's Phaser: Making Proportional Discovery (Finally) Work In Litigation By Requiring Phased Discovery, Michael Thomas Murphy

All Faculty Scholarship

This is an article about solving the problem of expensive electronic discovery in litigation by simply learning the most important facts first. Judges and parties often complain that the scope of information included in fact discovery in civil litigation is overinclusive and disproportionate to size of the dispute, resulting in overly expensive costs. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure recently changed again to further emphasize the use of “proportional” limits in discovery, but provide little practical mechanism for parties, lawyers, and judges to make discovery “right-sized.” This Article proposes that parties should be required to “phase” discovery by first setting …

Mediation Across Borders, Eunice Chua, Jolene Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Mr L is the director of InVisions, alarge Indonesian manufacturer providing top-of-the-range camera components toMK Pte Ltd, a Korean-headquartered mobile phone manufacturer. Mr K, who is anative Korean, is the General Manager of the company’s regional office based inThailand and manages the deals involving InVisions. The business relationshipis a lucrative one and both companies have had generally good relations since2003. Annual profits for InVision arising from sales to MK amounted to US$2.3million last year while the sales of MK’s mobile phones that are installed withInVision’s cameras reaped them a profit of US$3.5 million in the same period.During discussions for a …

A Comprehensive Theory Of Civil Settlement, J. J. Prescott, Kathryn E. Spier

Articles

A settlement is an agreement between parties to a dispute. In everyday parlance and in academic scholarship, settlement is juxtaposed with trial or some other method of dispute resolution in which a third-party factfinder ultimately picks a winner and announces a score. The “trial versus settlement” trope, however, represents a false choice; viewing settlement solely as a dispute-ending alternative to a costly trial leads to a narrow understanding of how dispute resolution should and often does work. In this Article, we describe and defend a much richer concept of settlement, amounting in effect to a continuum of possible agreements between …

Newsroom: Can Court 'Restore Fundamental Liberties'? 03-23-2016, Sheldon Whitehouse, David A. Logan

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Moving Family Dispute Resolution From The Court System To The Community, Jane C. Murphy, Jana B. Singer

All Faculty Scholarship

Over the past three decades, there has been a significant shift in the way the legal system approaches and resolves family disputes. Mediation, collaboration, and other non-adversarial processes have replaced a traditional, law-oriented adversarial regime. Until recently, however, reformers have focused largely on the court system as the setting for innovations in family dispute resolution. But our research suggests that courts may not be the best places for families to resolve disputes, particularly disputes involving children. Moreover, attempting to turn family courts into multi-door dispute resolution centers may detract from their essential role as adjudicators of last resort and forums …

Reflections On “Innovations In Family Dispute Resolution”, Deborah Thompson Eisenberg

Maryland Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Moving Family Dispute Resolution From The Court System To The Community, Jane C. Murphy, Jana B. Singer

Maryland Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Newsroom: Ap: Chung On 38 Studios Settlement 03-14-2016, Michelle R. Smith, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Emerging Practices In Community Development Agreements, Jennifer Loutit, Jacqueline Mandelbaum, Sam Szoke-Burke

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Community Development Agreements (CDAs) have the potential to facilitate the delivery of tangible benefits from large-scale investment projects, such as mines or forestry concessions, to affected persons and communities. To be effective, however, CDAs must be adapted to the local context, meaning that no single model agreement or process will be appropriate in every situation. Nonetheless, leading practices are emerging which can be required by governments, voluntarily adopted by companies, and demanded by communities. These practices are grounded in ensuring that all parties are sufficiently informed, capacitated, and prepared to engage in meaningful negotiations regarding how the investor’s operations should …

Periodic Review In Natural Resource Contracts, Jacky Mandelbaum, Salli Anne Swartz, John Hauert

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

Periodic contract review mechanisms, which are provisions in contracts that formally require parties to meet at particular intervals to review the terms of the contract, are mechanisms that may facilitate the process of negotiating contractual changes to accommodate changing circumstances over the term of extractive industries contracts. Through the review of existing extractive industries agreements, this article considers how such review mechanisms have been incorporated into existing contracts and the use of such mechanisms as a tool for maintaining good relationships between the parties. In addition, the article suggests a new approach to the drafting of these mechanisms by negotiating …

The Resolution Of Disputes Before The Singapore International Commercial Court, Man Yip

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The jurisdictional framework of the Singapore courts has become more nuanced with the establishment of the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) on 5 January 2015 and the signing of the Hague Convention on the Choice of Court Agreements 2005 (Hague Convention) on 25 March 2015. Although the Hague Convention has yet to be incorporated in domestic law, it is expected this will happen in the near future. The SICC project, on the other hand, is part of Singapore's strategy to promote the jurisdiction as an international dispute resolution hub. In essence, the SICC is a domestic specialist court established to …

2016 Exchanged Figures Chart, Edmund P. Edmonds

Annual Exchanged Figures Charts

No abstract provided.

2016 Arbitration Hearings Chart, Edmund P. Edmonds

Annual Hearings Charts

No abstract provided.

Myanmar Enacts Modern Arbitration Regime, Darius Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

Easy Assignment To Promote Law Students’ Apprenticeship Of Identity, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post describes an assignment in which students were required to review several law firm websites and write a homepage for the kind of practice that they would like to be part of. The post includes the assignment, which faculty are welcome to use or adapt.

The Outsized Costs Of Investor–State Dispute Settlement, Lise Johnson, Lisa E. Sachs

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment Staff Publications

The negotiation of several mega-treaties in 2015, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), and other regional agreements, has generated substantial public discussion about the protections and privileges afforded to multinational enterprises through the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism in these treaties. ISDS has increasingly raised concerns among certain governments and civil society groups, particularly as a growing number of ISDS cases involve investors challenging a range of governmental measures taken in good faith and in the public interest, including measures related to environmental protection, public health …

Finra Dispute Resolution Task Force Releases Its Final Report, With Support For Mediation And Live Hearings, Jill I. Gross

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article briefly describes the task force’s formation; highlights its key recommendations (such as requiring mediation before arbitration of all claims—subject to party opt-out, and introducing a more affordable, live hearing option for small claims); analyzes in more detail a few more controversial suggestions (such as expressly banning class action waivers in customer agreements and increasing the use of explained awards), and critiques the task force’s inability to reach consensus on other hot-button issues, such as mandatory arbitration.

Judging Third-Party Funding, Victoria Shannon Sahani

Scholarly Articles

Third-party funding is an arrangement whereby an outside entity finances the legal representation of a party involved in litigation or arbitration. The outside entity – called a “third-party funder” – could be a bank, hedge fund, insurance company, or some other entity or individual that finances the party's legal representation in return for a profit. Third-party funding is a controversial, dynamic, and evolving phenomenon. The practice has attracted both national headlines and the recent attention of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The Advisory Committee recently declared that “judges currently have the power to obtain information …

Mediation Theory Is Only As Good As Its Last Experiment, Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In this post on the Kluwer Mediation Blog, the hypothetical question of scientific enquiry and progress in the mediation field is explored.

Principal Investments V. Harrison, 132 Nev. Adv. Op. 2 (Jan. 14, 2016), Katherine Maher

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court held unless the arbitration agreement commits the question to the arbitrator with “clear and unmistakable” language, a litigation-conduct waiver is presumptively for the court to decide because it is a waiver based on active litigation in court. Thus, the district court judge in this case did not err in addressing whether the moving party waived its right to arbitrate, instead of referring the question to the arbitrator.

Multicultural Adr And Family Law: A Brief Introduction To The Complexities Of Religious Arbitration, Michael J. Broyde

Faculty Articles

Recent polls indicate that the U.S. population is getting less religious and more secular. This seems to mirror the nation’s— and its laws’—movement away from reflecting certain traditional values. While these movements have left some members of the religious population in a precarious situation, surrounded by a society whose values are changing before their eyes, it has also caused the religious to cling tighter to their respective faiths and become more entrenched in the values they assert.

As the government has, slowly but surely, aligned itself with the popular shift away from traditional religious values, the pleas of the religious …

Mediation, Legal Clinic Program

Course Descriptions and Information

Students will learn and develop skills crucial to the role of mediators and legal professionals. By focusing and implementing mediation methodologies, students will learn skills of active listening and communications; conflict, issue and interests spotting, information gathering and negotiations techniques; problem-solving strategies and approaches; and effective mediation settlement agreement drafting.

Who Has Benefited Financially From Investment Treaty Arbitration? An Evaluation Of The Size And Wealth Of Claimants, Gus Van Harten

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

We collected data on the size and wealth of the foreign investors that have brought claims and received compensation due to ISDS. Our main findings are that the beneficiaries of ISDS, in the aggregate, have overwhelmingly been companies with more than USD1 billion in annual revenue – especially extra-large companies with more than USD10 billion – and individuals with more than USD100 million in net wealth. ISDS has produced monetary benefits primarily for those companies or individuals at the expense of respondent states. Incidentally, we also found that extra-large companies’ success rates in ISDS, especially at the merits stage, exceeded …

Remedy Realities In Business-To-Consumer Contracting, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

Professor Jean Braucher greatly contributed to the exploration of consumer and contract law by questioning how the law operates in the real world and highlighting the importance of “law in action.” In recognition of that contribution, this Article focuses on law in action with respect to consumers’ quest to obtain remedies regarding their business-to-consumers (“B2C”) contracts. Currently, consumers often have no practical recourse with respect to B2C purchase problems due to the complexity, cost, and inconvenience of the processes for obtaining remedies. Accordingly, stated legal rights become meaningless for individuals living in the real world. This Article, therefore, explores access …