Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons^™

Toward A Private Law Of Intimates' Obligations, Emily J. Stolzenberg

Faculty Publications

When former cohabitants ask courts to distribute property at the end of a nonmarital relationship, they usually lose—even when the partners were as economically intertwined as spouses. Family law scholars have traditionally criticized these cases in terms of longstanding gendered ideas about family relationships. This Article proposes a complementary account at the intersection of feminist and private law theory: that the law of voluntary obligations is not adequately developed to protect intimates’ cooperation. Although marital status law aims to safeguard thick cooperation between spouses and contract law captures a range of more market-based cooperation, for historically contingent reasons, little doctrine …

The Case For An African Investment Court (Aic), Won L. Kidane

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Why Ai May Be Your Best Negotiation And Mediation Coach, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This article explores the role of artificial intelligence (AI) tools as negotiation and mediation coaches.  Drawing on research from negotiation, mediation, and consumer behavior, the article explains why bots can sometimes coach more effectively than humans.  In this role, they offer on-demand support that can help users prepare strategically and reflect honestly.  This support is especially valuable when seeking help from a human would feel too risky or awkward.

The article cautions against use of AI for roles requiring emotional intelligence, discretion, or legitimacy, such as negotiators, mediators, or arbitrators.  It distinguishes between AI as a thinking partner and AI …

The Art Of Ai Prompting In Law And Dispute Resolution Practice, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This short article offers a practical guide for using AI tools to improve the judgment and efficiency of lawyers, mediators, and arbitrators.  It cites ABA Ethics Opinion 512, which describes lawyers’ ethical duty of technological competence under the ABA Model Rules.

The article encourages practitioners to begin by selecting AI tools appropriate to their tasks such as general-purpose platforms or specialized tools listed in the article.  It explains how to write effective prompts, use follow-up questions to refine outputs, and apply professional judgment when reviewing results.  It includes a list of suggested follow-up prompts.

Getting useful results from AI tools …

How Mediators And Lawyers Can Use Ai: A Practical Video Guide, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This article explains why mediators and lawyers increasingly need to use artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their work.  It introduces a video that offers practical guidance for mediators and lawyers on using AI to enhance planning, help clients make better decisions, and improve efficiency.  It includes a basic introduction to AI, guidance on getting good results and managing risks, and demonstrations of RPS Coach, a specialized AI tool.  The article provides links to the video, PowerPoint slides, and a transcript of the demonstrations.

Promoting Better Dispute Decision-Making With An Ai Tool Built On Rps Theory, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Traditional theories of negotiation and mediation rely on rigid models, false dichotomies, and confusing terminology that fails to reflect the complexity of real practice. This article critiques those theories and introduces Real Practice Systems (RPS) theory as a more accurate and practical alternative.

RPS theory conceptualizes negotiation and mediation as sequences of professional judgment shaped by context, experience, and goals, rather than as idealized or linear processes. It promotes a realistic and ethically responsible practice by encouraging reflection, intentional process design, and adaptability.

The article introduces “RPS Coach,” a free artificial intelligence tool built on the ChatGPT platform. It is …

Thinking Like Mediators About The Future Of Ai, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Some public discourse about artificial intelligence (AI) reflects the uncertainty and tension typical of high-stakes conflicts, where differing perceptions and strong emotions shape how people respond to change. This short essay suggests that dispute resolution professionals are well-positioned to apply our tools to this emerging and complex issue, though we don’t always do so.

The essay calls for a balanced analysis of AI’s risks and benefits, drawing on familiar dispute resolution practices like careful consideration of situations, interests, and options. It highlights the differences between individual and societal impacts of AI use on the environment and education. It encourages the …

How Ai Can Help Mediators Say What They Really Mean, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This article critiques the widespread use of the terms “facilitative” and “evaluative” to describe mediation techniques. Despite their popularity in scholarship and practice, these labels are inconsistently defined, frequently misunderstood, and fundamentally flawed. Drawing on a survey of mediation experts, the article documents significant confusion about how professionals interpret these terms – and how they think that others interpret them. It builds on Leonard Riskin’s critique of the facilitative-evaluative framework, which shows that the language not only oversimplifies complex processes but also risks confusing parties and undermining informed decision-making.

As an alternative, the article proposes a behavioral vocabulary that reflects …

Responsible Realism About Artificial Intelligence: How Ai Is Shaping Legal And Dispute Resolution Practice, Education, And Scholarship, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This article synthesizes the views of legal scholars examining how generative artificial intelligence (AI) is affecting legal and dispute resolution practice, education, and scholarship. They share a perspective of responsible realism – recognizing both the promise and the perils of AI. It is already reshaping how lawyers, neutrals, educators, students, and scholars work – and its influence will only grow.

The scholars identify clear benefits: broader access, greater efficiency, and new support for professional learning. They also warn of serious risks, including bias, deskilling, and erosion of judgment. Avoiding both hype and panic, they analyze developments, offer realistic strategies, and …

Training Humanoids To Use Good Dispute Resolution Language, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This short essay uses satire to spotlight the entrenched, misleading terminology widely used in the dispute resolution field, especially in legal and academic settings. Drawing on metaphors of humanoids, bots, and malware, it critiques outdated jargon like “facilitative” and “evaluative” mediation and proposes clearer alternatives derived from Real Practice Systems theory. It describes efforts to train an AI tool, the RPS Negotiation and Mediation Coach, to model improved language use and nudge human users toward better decision-making. Though light in tone, it reflects a serious commitment to reforming the way we talk about and practice negotiation and mediation.

The Art Of Mediation Representation: Helping Clients Make Good Decisions, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Attorneys regularly represent clients in mediation, yet many do not perform this role effectively. The article is designed to help attorneys better assist clients in making good decisions during mediation. It explores the theory and practice of mediation representation, emphasizing how attorneys can provide excellent client service by counseling clients and communicating effectively with mediators and counterpart attorneys. Ideally, attorneys as act “quasi-mediators,” helping clients make informed, confident decisions while navigating the mediation process. Drawing on the Real Practice Systems checklists and empirical research, the article outlines key tasks before, during, and after mediation sessions. It critiques the inadequate preparation …

When Ai Comes To The Table: How Tech Tools Will Change Adr, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI) is quickly reshaping the landscape of dispute resolution. This article explores how an expanding range of AI tools will influence negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and related processes. These tools will serve a wide array of users and contexts, reflect differing practice philosophies, and raise important questions about fairness, transparency, and values. Drawing on theory, practice, and real-world examples, the article identifies seven categories of emerging tools – from dispute prevention and practitioner preparation to education and platform integration. It highlights the importance of ethical design, user awareness, and professional responsibility, arguing that AI should support – not replace …

Getting The Most From Ai Tools: A Practical Guide To Writing Effective Prompts, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This article is a companion to How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bot: What I Learned About AI and What You Can Too. This article helps users, especially those in dispute resolution roles, learn how to write effective prompts and engage productively with artificial intelligence (AI) tools. The goal is to make AI less intimidating and more useful – one good question at a time.

The article shows how users can choose appropriate tools, formulate effective prompts, and generate useful results. It offers role-specific prompt suggestions for mediators, attorneys, disputants, ADR program managers, law school faculty, …

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bot: What I Learned About Ai And What You Can Too, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools play an increasingly prominent role in legal education, legal practice, and dispute resolution. People’s understanding of how these tools work varies widely. This article outlines a framework to improve AI literacy among dispute resolution practitioners, parties, ADR program managers, faculty, students, and scholars. It highlights emerging trends and offers practical suggestions and resources to support AI literacy and the responsible integration of AI into their work. A companion article, Getting the Most from AI Tools: A Practical Guide to Writing Effective Prompts, helps users, especially those in dispute resolution roles, learn how to write effective …

Rps Coach Project: A Growing Library About A Valuable Ai Tool, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This document collects a growing library of publications, videos, and podcasts about the RPS Negotiation and Mediation Coach (RPS Coach), an AI tool grounded in Real Practice Systems (RPS) Theory. RPS Coach is designed to support mediators, lawyers, parties, educators, students, and scholars by promoting good decision-making and reflective practice in negotiation and mediation. This piece summarizes articles and blog posts that present the theory, knowledge base, and functions of RPS Coach, along with practical guidance for its use in dispute resolution, writing, and legal education. It includes links to each publication and will be updated as new work is …

Rps Coach Is Biased - And Proud Of It, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This short essay explores the concept of bias in artificial intelligence tools used in dispute resolution. Biases are not necessarily flaws to be avoided, but inevitable and potentially constructive features of these tools. They reflect values and design choices that AI developers should disclose.

There are both market and ethical imperatives for AI tools to disclose their features and embedded values. As developers compete for users, people will want to know what they’re getting. Disclosure helps users understand the effects of assumptions, priorities, and frameworks built into a tool’s design, and thus should be treated as a core ethical principle. …

Technology And Me And You: Getting Comfortable With Ai, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This short essay reflects on the author’s surprising dive into artificial intelligence (AI) despite his longstanding caution about adopting new technology. As a self-described tech-wary curmudgeon who avoids unnecessary upgrades and stays off social media, the author explores how AI – specifically, a custom-built RPS (Real Practice Systems) Negotiation and Mediation Coach – nonetheless has proved to be unexpectedly valuable.

Drawing from personal experience, the essay suggests how people can become comfortable using AI, suggesting how they can overcome hesitation and use AI productively. Rather than treating AI as a black box or magic solution, it emphasizes the importance of …

Good Language For Dispute Resolution Bots And Humanoids, John Lande

Faculty Publications

In developing the AI tool, the RPS Negotiation and Mediation Coach, I had to give it strict instructions to use certain terms and avoid others so that it doesn’t use lots of problematic dispute resolution jargon on the internet. This short article lists those terms.

The article points out that, just like bots, humanoids need to be trained. It is especially important to teach good dispute resolution language to law professor, law student, and practitioner units. Many of these humanoids are stuck on defective codings such as “facilitative” and “evaluative” mediation, which are like contagious malware. Humanoids generally can “learn” …

The Artificially Intelligent Rps Negotiation And Mediation Coach, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This document describes the artificially intelligent RPS Negotiation and Mediation Coach (“RPS Coach”) tool, which is an outgrowth of the Real Practice Systems (RPS) Project. It is designed to help many different users perform numerous tasks including (1) attorneys anticipating challenges, strategizing, and representing clients, (2) mediators enhancing preparation, communication, and decision-making, (3) disputing parties making better decisions, (4) ADR program administrators developing clear rules, policies, and materials, (5) educators and trainers teaching practical theory and skills, and (6) students and trainees learning practical theory and skills.

RPS theory and practice is designed to help attorneys and mediators help their …

A Practical Guide For Using The Rps Negotiation And Mediation Coach, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This two-page guide introduces the RPS Negotiation and Mediation Coach, an AI-powered tool grounded in Real Practice Systems (RPS) theory. It explains who can use RPS Coach, how it supports good decision-making, and the range of tasks it can perform. It is designed for attorneys, mediators, parties, ADR program administrators, educators, and students to improve the quality of dispute resolution practice, program design, and legal education. Practitioners and parties can use it to prepare for, participate in, and reflect on negotiation and mediation. Faculty can use it to develop syllabi, assignments, and simulations. Users can explore ideas, generate drafts, and …

What's The Matter With Batna? It's Misleading And Doesn't Help Advance Parties' Important Interests, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Many dispute resolution experts misunderstand the concept of BATNA (the best alternative to a negotiated agreement), believing that it is the most favorable possible outcome if the parties don’t settle. In fact, BATNA isn’t an expected result. It’s a course of action, not the value resulting from the course of action.

Attorneys often make unrealistic predictions of court outcomes because of inherent uncertainty and cognitive biases. Moreover, parties have many intangible interests that aren’t included in estimates of BATNA values.

This article offers suggestions for attorneys and mediators to advance clients’ interests by better understanding and valuing non-settlement outcomes.

How Can You Turn Adversarial Attorneys Into Quasi-Mediators?, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This article grows out of an educational program sponsored by the St. Louis chapter of the Association of Attorney-Mediators, which functioned as a focus group. It describes mediators’ experiences with attorneys in mediation who were cooperative and adversarial.

It describes things that mediators can do to make adversarial attorneys behave as “quasi-mediators.” Attorneys acting as quasi-mediators help their clients realistically understand the other side’s perspectives. The attorneys also promote their clients’ interests by enlisting the mediators’ help and encouraging the other side to adjust their positions. Attorneys who sometimes act as quasi-mediators tailor their techniques to their clients’ preferences and …

Choosing To Use Good Language In The "Adr" Field, John Lande

Faculty Publications

On October 30, 2024, Debra Berman posted a message on a listserv encouraging colleagues to drop the word “alternative” from “ADR.” Her post quickly prompted 24 responses. This article summarizes the listserv discussion about the term “ADR,” and demonstrates serious misconceptions embodied in popular concepts of “BATNA” and “facilitative” and “evaluative” mediation as well as other problematic language that we frequently use.

Language is a shared resource that can enable people to understand each other accurately and to improve our ideas and techniques. This article describes the many ways that language has huge effects on people’s thoughts and actions, and …

Securities Arbitration Case Law Update 2024–2025 (July 2025), Elissa Germaine, Anthony Rivera

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

This article summarizes recent cases regarding the constitutionality of FINRA and leading arbitration cases that are of particular relevance to securities arbitration practitioners.

How Attorneys Can Be Quasi-Mediators, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This distills insights from a forthcoming article, How Can You Turn Adversarial Attorneys into Quasi-Mediators? The article is a Theory Meets Practice column in CPR’s Alternatives magazine that summarizes a discussion with members of the Association of Attorney-Mediators.

Attorneys acting as quasi-mediators prefer to be cooperative and use mediation techniques but they aren’t neutral. They tailor their actions based on their clients’ preferences and the other side’s approach. Another term for quasi-mediators is “good lawyers.”

Based on the forthcoming article and the Real Practice Systems Project Menu of Mediation Checklists, this two-page article lists things that mediators can do to …

Creating Educational Value By Teaching Law Students To Be Quasi-Mediators, John Lande

Faculty Publications

Most mediation courses currently focus primarily on mediators’ perspectives and interventions during mediation sessions. Under the traditional view, mediators are the intervenors, and the parties, attorneys, and other participants in mediation sessions are the intervenees.

This article argues that mediation courses should provide balanced instruction of the roles of both mediators and attorneys by teaching students how to function as “quasi-mediators” when representing clients in mediation. As quasi-mediators, attorneys look for opportunities to reach reasonable agreements whenever appropriate, and they use mediation techniques to move the process in that direction. But they do not surrender their loyalty to their clients …

Law Schools Should Substantially Increase Instruction In Mediation Representation, John Lande

Faculty Publications

American law schools generally focus 10% or less of their mediation curriculum on mediation representation. As shown in a survey of faculty teaching mediation and an analysis of course syllabi in this article, most of the instruction focuses on the role of a mediator.

This is a problem for several reasons. New graduates represent clients in mediation much more frequently than they mediate. Clients usually need professional advice to evaluate their cases and develop strategies, which mediators cannot provide. This is precisely the important service that attorneys can provide, but we teach students very little about what to do when …

Theory And Practice Of Mediation Representation, John Lande

Faculty Publications

These days, American attorneys regularly represent clients in mediation. This representation is a complex process, and attorneys and law students need guidance about how to serve clients well in this context. This article offers a theoretical framework for analyzing mediation representation based on Real Practice System Theory. It reviews books that outline elements of mediation representation and identify practical techniques that attorneys can use when representing clients in mediation. It supplies several suggestions for faculty who teach mediation, including teaching courses combining the perspectives of both mediators and mediation representatives.

Real Practice Systems Project Menu Of Checklists For Attorneys In Mediation, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This is a detailed menu of checklists for attorneys representing clients in mediation, including actions before, during, and after mediation sessions. The checklists include items about information to provide on websites, compliance with ethical requirements, and reflection and improvement of techniques. They are intended to prompt attorneys to become more conscious and intentional in their work, helping them to develop routines and strategies for dealing with recurring problems.

The checklists are extensive but not exhaustive. They are not recipes to follow strictly, thoughtlessly, or completely. Instead, they should help attorneys decide what to do in any specific case or in …

Adr In The Ongoing Experiment Of American Law, Carli N. Conklin

Faculty Publications

To engage in the development of American law— past or present—is to engage in a great and ongoing experiment. It is an exercise of the imagination. And one place where American law has been most imaginative is in the field of alternative dispute resolution. It is an area of law that, in its creativity and emphasis on the person as a whole, is particularly well-suited to respond to the guiding question of our constitutional democracy: how might we live well together?