Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons^™

Introduction To Symposium On "Adr's Place In Navigating A Polarized Era", Nancy A. Welsh

Faculty Scholarship

Ours is a nation built for conflict, for friction. Such conflict, while painful, can be good. It can signal newfound agency, and it can be a catalyst for dialogue, customized and creative solutions, and ultimately progress. This is what many dispute resolution academics teach their students. But we are caught in such an extraordinarily polarized time, and many wonder what role ADR can and should play in navigating a polarized era. That was the question addressed by Texas A&M School of Law's March 2020 symposium, with the resulting articles - by Baruch Bush & Peter Miller, Jonathan Cohen, Jill DeTemple, …

Designing A State Court Small Claims Odr System: Hitting A Moving Target In New York During A Pandemic, David Allen Larson

Faculty Scholarship

When I began helping the New York State Unified Court System design a pilot online dispute resolution (“ODR”) system back in October 2016, I never imagined more than four years would pass before a system was implemented. One reason our journey was so long is because our target kept moving. After completing a detailed credit card debt collection ODR platform, we had to change direction before implementation and focus instead on small claims cases. Then like the rest of the world, we suddenly had to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it took longer than anticipated, we achieved our goal …

Designing And Implementing A State Court Odr System: From Disappointment To Celebration, David Larson

Faculty Scholarship

For the past two and one-third years I have had the pleasure of working with the New York State Unified Court System to design and implement an online dispute resolution (ODR) platform. It truly has been an interesting, educational, at times character-building, and ultimately tremendously valuable experience. This article will share specific design components from the ODR platforms we proposed as well as some of the critical lessons I learned. The hope is that it will be helpful to those either contemplating, or in the process of implementing, a court integrated ODR system.

The Blurring Of The Public/Private Distinction Or The Collapse Of A Category? The Story Of Investment Arbitration, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

The paper is a response piece to Deborah Hensler and Damira Khatam’s new article, Re-inventing Arbitration: How Expanding the Scope of Arbitration Is Re-Shaping Its Form and Blurring the Line Between Private and Public Adjudication. Their main argument regarding the public-private distinction is that the arbitral procedure has changed as a consequence of the substantive issues resolved in this particular ADR system. According to them the arbitral system, which was originally conceived for commercial purposes, has become another way of litigating public law, but without the accountability mechanisms attached to public courts. In this paper, I agree in large part …

Adr And Access To Justice: Current Perspectives, Rory Van Loo, Ellen E. Deason, Michael Z. Green, Donna Shestowsky, Ellen Waldman

Faculty Scholarship

Access to justice is a broad topic, and we cannot cover everything. You will notice a few major omissions. Most notably, we are not going to emphasize consumer pre-dispute arbitration agreements. This is not because they are not important, but because much has been written and said on this topic, and it could easily swallow the whole discussion. Also, we are probably not going to say very much about restorative justice, and I am sure you will notice some other holes. We invite you to raise missing issues in your comments.

Let me start with a few opening remarks. We …

Variations On A Theme By Sander: Does A Mediator Have A Philosophical Map?, Sharon Press, Joseph B. Stulberg

Faculty Scholarship

Can a mediator play a constructive role in helping citizens confront and resolve the most divisive issues of our times? We believe the answer is affirmative, but we worry that such a view, though richly grounded in our historical tradition, is now neither widely endorsed nor effectively implemented.

We belong to a group of dispute resolution professionals who learned both from mentors and experience that ADR—and mediation, in particular-offers a philosophical map for conducting problem—solving activities among fellow citizens that systematically supports and advances our most noble aspirations for a fair society. Be it the urban riots of the 1960s …

Procedural Justice Beyond Borders: Mediation In Ghana, Jacqueline Nolan-Haley, James Kwasi Annor-Ohene

Faculty Scholarship

Ghana enacted comprehensive alternative dispute resolution legislation in 2010 with the specific goals of providing access to justice and promoting domestic and foreign direct investment (The Act). A significant aspect of the Act was the inclusion of customary arbitration and mediation. The focus of this Article is on mediation as this is the first time that mediation has been included in a statute in Ghana. The Act’s definition of mediation reflects an understanding of the mediation process based upon the western values of individual autonomy and party self-determination. These principles represent a significant departure from the more communal values of …

Alternative Dispute Resolution And Public Confidence In The Judiciary: Chief Judge Bell's "Culture Of Conflict Resolution", Deborah Thompson Eisenberg, Rachel Wohl, Toby Treem Guerin

Faculty Scholarship

Chief Judge Robert M. Bell has been a visionary leader in the development of alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”). His innovations have made Maryland a model state for conflict resolution programs in the courts and, uniquely, beyond the courthouse doors in a broad range of arenas. This article provides an overview of the “culture of conflict resolution” he ignited in the judiciary and in communities.

Court-Connected Mediation And Minorities: A Report Card, Sharon Press

Faculty Scholarship

Critical race theorists have raised important concerns about alternative dispute resolution in general and mediation specifically. Many of the critiques were written prior to the ascendency of court-connected mediation. To set the context, Part II of this article begins with a brief history of the court-connected mediation movement in the United States. In Part III, the critiques of mediation, specifically focusing on those related to minorities, are summarized. Part IV identifies some of the flaws in the critiques as related to court-connected mediation. Part V includes actions that court programs can undertake to address the issues raised by the critiques …

Making Peace And Making Money: Economic Analysis Of The Market For Mediators In Private Practice, Urska Velikonja

Faculty Scholarship

Mediation has grown tremendously in the last three decades, yet only a small number of mediators have been able to benefit financially from its growth. The supply of willing mediators by far exceeds the demand for their services. Mediator trainee overoptimism and the lack of formal barriers to entry result in excess entry in the market for mediators. However, the lack of a formal barrier, but the existence of de facto barriers to entry, such as mediator selection practices and specialization, combined with excessive individual optimism, creates inefficiently high levels of entry. This is socially suboptimal: many aspirant mediators spend …

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 …

Technology Mediated Dispute Resolution Can Improve The Registry Of Interpreters For The Deaf Ethical Practices System: The Deaf Community Is Well Prepared And Can Lead By Example, David Allen Larson, Paula Gajewski Mickelson

Faculty Scholarship

The work of American Sign Language (ASL)/English interpreters is filled with complex interpersonal, linguistic and cultural challenges. The decisions and ethical dilemmas interpreters face on a daily basis are countless and the potential for disagreement regarding those decisions is great. Technology Mediated Dispute Resolution (TMDR) processes can be particularly helpful when misunderstandings and conflicts arise. Technology Mediated Dispute Resolution is a more inclusive phrase than Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) and includes cellular telephones, radio frequency devices, and satellite communication systems. The Deaf Community has learned to adapt and rely upon a variety of technologies and, because many Deaf individuals already …

Learning From Practice: What Adr Needs From A Theory Of Justice, Kate Kruse

Faculty Scholarship

Adding to the impressive body of work that has made her a leading voice in the fields of both alternative dispute resolution and professional responsibility, Carrie Menkel-Meadow's Saltman Lecture connects the theoretical exploration currently occurring on two parallel tracks: (1) theories of justice that investigate the ideal of a deliberative democracy; and (2) theories of alternative dispute resolution arising from its reflective practice. As she notes, theorists on both tracks are grappling with similar questions about the processes or conditions that will best bring together parties with widely divergent viewpoints to consensus-building dialogue around contested issues.

While Menkel-Meadow focuses on …

From Star To Supernova To Dark, Cold Neutron Star: The Early Life, The Explosion And The Collapse Of Arbitration, Michael Hunter Schwartz

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

What Happens When Mediation Is Institutionalized?: To The Parties, Practitioners, And Host Institutions, James J. Alfini, John Barkai, Robert Baruch Bush, Michele Hermann, Jonathan Hyman, Kimberlee Kovach, Carol B. Liebman, Sharon Press, Leonard Riskin

Faculty Scholarship

The Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Association of American Law Schools presented a program, at the 1994 AALS Conference, on the institutionalization of mediation – through courtconnected programs and otherwise. The topic is an important one, because this phenomenon has become increasingly common in recent years. Moreover, the topic seemed especially appropriate for the 1994 program, since Florida – the host state for the conference – was one of the first states to adopt a comprehensive statute providing for court-ordered mediation (at the trial judge's option) in civil disputes of all kinds. The move toward institutionalizing mediation has raised …

Teaching Mediation As A Lawyering Role Developments, Jacqueline Nolan-Haley

Faculty Scholarship

The growth of the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) movement has generated an increased interest in the study and practice of mediation as a nonadversarial method of conflict resolution. With mediation, individuals settle their disputes using a neutral third party who has no power to impose a settlement. Historically, mediation has been widely neglected in legal education, and-except for those involved in the labor field-lawyers have not practiced it. Recent gains in visibility have not necessarily resulted in widespread acceptance of mediation. In fact, mediation has even been openly resisted by some members of the legal profession.

Unions And Urinalysis, Deborah A. Schmedemann

Faculty Scholarship

Many private employers seem to be busy deciding whether and how to test employees for drug use. Presumably most of these decisions are made by management acting alone. However, in unionized workplaces—one out of five private sector employees are represented by unions—federal labor law prescribes a different method. That method features collective bargaining by unions and management to set the rules, the use of a private third-party neutral to resolve disputes which arise under those rules (arbitration), and relatively little involvement by the government (the National Labor Relations Board, legislatures, and the courts). This system that labor law prescribes for …

Bandwagon Is Rolling: Adr Demands And Thrives On Lawyers Creative Thinking, Christine D. Ver Ploeg

Faculty Scholarship

The ADR (alternative dispute resolution) bandwagon is rolling. Clients are becoming disenchanted with traditional litigation, and they're hearing about ADR. ADR has three broad categories: mediation, the mini-trial, and arbitration. Attorneys can provide a real service to clients by being familiar with and developing skills in ADR.