Law Commons^™

Negotiating Social Change: Backstory Behind The Repeal Of Don’T Ask, Don’T Tell, Linell A. Letendre, Hal Abramson

Scholarly Works

This Article is about negotiating social change in the largest U.S.institution, the Military and its five Services. Inducing social change in any institution and society is notoriously difficult when change requires overcoming clashing personal values among stakeholders. And, in this negotiation over the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT), clashing values over open service by gays and lesbians were central to the conflict.

In response to President Obama’s call to repeal DADT, the Secretary of Defense selected a Working Group to undertake studies, surveys and focus groups to inform the debate. During the nine-month process of gathering a massive …

The Changed Batna, Elayne E. Greenberg

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

This column invites readers to consider whether the adjudicated outcome should be relied on as a realistic benchmark for advocates and mediators. In everyday dispute resolution practice, advocates and mediators regularly consider an adjudicated decision to be a realistic point of comparison to a negotiated or mediated outcome. For example, when assessing the merits of settlement, lawyers preparing for a legal negotiation and mediation frequently consider the likely adjudicated outcome as their best alternative to a negotiated agreement (hereinafter BATNA). In mediation, mediators often focus parties and their lawyers on the cost, time and likelihood of a favorable adjudicated …

Nelson Mandela As Negotiator: What Can We Learn From Him?, Harold I. Abramson

Scholarly Works

This article considers how “the greatest negotiator of the twentieth century,” Nelson Mandela, approached negotiating the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC), the dismantling of apartheid, and his own freedom after twenty-seven years of imprisonment. He employed classically good negotiation practices in the face of intense and violent opposition while confined in prison for life. If he could be successful, why cannot lawyers succeed when facing less daunting disputes?

This article focuses on the period starting in 1985, when Mandela refused an offer to be released if he would condemn violence, until 1990, when President de Klerk gave his …

A Primer On Resolving Disputes: Lessons From Alternative Dispute Resolution, Harold I. Abramson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.