Law Commons^™

Bargaining With A Hugger: The Weaknesses And Limitations Of A Communitarian Conception Of Legal Dispute Bargaining, Or Why We Can't All Just Get Along, Robert J. Condlin

Faculty Scholarship

The communitarian conception of dispute-bargaining now popular with legal academics presupposes a world in which people are always at their best. Clients and lawyers share information about themselves and their situations candidly and honestly, construct agreements from the perspective of their common interests and resolve differences according to objectively derived and jointly agreed upon substantive standards. This is supposed to take the hard edge off their disputing and make it less antagonistic, less competitive, less deceptive, less manipulative and less mean-spirited than it otherwise might be. This is a wonderfully inspiring view and it would be a source of great …