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Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor: Rluipa And The Mediation Of Religious Land Use Disputes, Jeffrey H. Goldfien

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The question addressed in this article is whether existing systems for processing religious land use claims are well-suited to the task. The conclusion is that they are not, and that local officials and others involved in religious land use disputes ought to consider employing mediation at an early stage. The main virtue of mediation in this context is the opportunity it provides for disputants to meet face-to-face in an effort to understand the views of others, even if they do not agree with them. Facilitated dialogues among persons with differing perspectives is precisely what is missing from the traditional systems …