Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons^™

Culture And Its Importance In Mediation, Joel Lee

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article seeks to take the reader on this "meta-journey." It will first explore definitions and frameworks about culture before looking at how culture is important in mediation. Specific attention will be placed on the context of Singapore, and we will look at Singapore's journey to dealing with the intersection between culture and mediation. This article will then look at formulating a working model to traverse the intersections between status and belonging on one hand, and modes of communication and face concerns on the other.

Managing The Inter-Cultural Dimensions Of A Mediation Effectively: A Proposed Pre-Mediation Intake Instrument, Dorcas Quek Anderson, Diana Knight

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Being a culturally responsive mediator has become increasingly challenging amidst the growing cultural complexity within many societies. Drawing on the existing research on culture and the authors’ experiences of mediating disputes amongst diverse disputants in Australia and Singapore, this paper proposes an emic-constructivist approach for the mediator to understand the individual disputant’s unique cultural preferences. It also recommends bringing forward the exercise of understanding cultural preferences through conducting pre-mediation intake interviews. It is argued that this approach enables the mediator to embrace the parties’ cultural complexity and to design the mediation process based on their rich milieu of preferences. Finally, …

Book Review: Contemporary Issues In Mediation (Volume 1), Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This is a review of a publication by Singapore International Mediation Institute (SIMI) featuring the top ten entries of its inaugural essay writing competition. The author comments on the essays covering a range of topics in the mediation field including the impact of Singapore culture on the practice of mediation; mediation theories and techniques; and the interface between mediation and the law.

The Role Of Language Interpretation In Providing A Quality Mediation Process, Alexandra Carter, Shawn Watts

Faculty Scholarship

This paper focuses on the role of language in mediation and the challenges multiple language fluencies bring to the practice. Beginning with a discussion of the process and ethics of mediation as a form of alternative dispute resolution, as distinct from other forms of dispute resolution including arbitration, the paper shifts to consider the importance of language. Language, and more specifically interpretation, plays a central role in the integrity of the mediation process and the quality of its outcomes. Each stage of mediation requires the participants and the mediator understand one another to ensure effective communication and a quality process. …

Online Dispute Resolution (Odr) Within Developing Nations: A Qualitative Evaluation Of Transfer And Impact, Doug Leigh, Frank Fowlie

Doug Leigh

The field of online dispute resolution (ODR) is developing both as practice and a profession. Evidence of this includes a growing community of scholars and practitioners. A Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) grant permitted 16 practitioners from developing countries to attend the 2008 ODR Forum in Victoria, British Columbia. In the year following the Forum, an evaluation was conducted to identify changes among these practitioners’ behaviors, knowledge, skills, abilities and credibility. Results indicate that ODR practitioners in developing countries are engaged in a wide range of activities, many of which are technologically and logistically complex. These practitioners also face a …

Von Fischen Im Wasser Und Andere Mediationserzählungen [Of Fish In Water And Other Mediation Stories] (In German), Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This essay offers an international and cross-cultural perspective on mediation. It builds on the contributions to this journal issue and extends the conversation to include (1) the role of culture in mediations models and (2) the taboo topic of directive, evaluative approaches. After reviewing various taxonomies of mediation models, the author’s mediation meta model is used as a framework to analyze diverse approaches of mediation including those presented in this issue. Historical-cultural perspectives provide further layers of depth and nuance that thicken the already complex storylines of the human mediation narrative. If mediation is to succeed in attaining truly global …

Religiosity In Constitutions And The Status Of Minority Rights, Brandy G. Robinson

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Minority rights and religion have never been topics that are simultaneously considered. However, arguably, the two have relevance, especially when combined with the topic and theory of constitutionalism. Historically and traditionally, minorities have been granted certain rights and have been denied certain rights under various constitutions. These grants and denials relate to cultural differences and values, arguably relating to a culture’s understanding and interpretation of religion.

This article explores the relationship and status of minority rights as it relates to religiosity and constitutionalism. Essentially, there is a correlation between these topics and research shows where certain nations have used religion …

"Ancient" Wisdom: When East Meets West, Kenneth Fox, Joel Lee, Stephanie Mitchell, Vasudha Srinivasan

Kenneth H Fox

This article examines Eastern and Western "ancient wisdom" traditions and applies those traditions to cross-cultural negotiation practice.

Mediating Commitments, Ian Macduff

Ian Macduff

This paper explores the implications of one aspect of intercultural theory –the dimension of power distance– in order to comment on the nature of commitments in the mediation process. The familiar model of Western ediation assumes that parties can identify core interests and negotiate around those, through prioritising, trading and balancing. At the heart of our thinking about commitments are our ideas about agency, autonomy, and accountability. However, a core implication of empirical work on power distance suggests that expectations of deference may lead some participants to avoid direct decision-making responsibility and, rather than work towards commitments, to act on …

Mediation And The Myth Of Universality, Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In his essay entitled ‘Mediation: Pfade zum Frieden’, Professor Montada has made an important contribution to the mediation literature. He questions the universality of the standard mediation model that appears to be sweeping the world with enormous zeal and in doing so puts forward theories and principles to substantiate his view. To a large extent I agree with what the author has to say about the scope and potential for mediation. In particular I support his view that professional mediators need to be made aware of the cultural limitations of the model in which they are trained. As I write …

Administrative Law And Culture For The U.S. Collaborative Governance State, David H. Rosenbloomn, Mei Jen Hung

Journal of Dispute Resolution

During the 1980s and 1990s, collaborative governance emerged as a potentially new global paradigm for public administration. It comes in many forms. However, its essence is governmental reliance on nongovernmental entities for the delivery of public services and constraints. Simply put, collaborative governance calls on government to focus on "steering" while relying on third parties to do the "rowing." In the United States, collaborative government is not new in kind-the federal government relied on contractors to convey the mail from the early days of the republic. Rather it is new in scope, accounting for billions of dollars and millions of …

Mediating Commitments, Ian Macduff

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This paper explores the implications of one aspect of intercultural theory –the dimension of power distance– in order to comment on the nature of commitments in the mediation process. The familiar model of Western ediation assumes that parties can identify core interests and negotiate around those, through prioritising, trading and balancing. At the heart of our thinking about commitments are our ideas about agency, autonomy, and accountability. However, a core implication of empirical work on power distance suggests that expectations of deference may lead some participants to avoid direct decision-making responsibility and, rather than work towards commitments, to act on …

Outward Bound To Other Cultures: Seven Guidelines For U.S. Dispute Resolution Trainers, Harold Abramson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Private Rights And Collective Governance: A Functional Approach To Natural Resources Law, Eric T. Freyfogle

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

4 pages.

"Eric T. Freyfogle, Max L. Rowe Professor of Law, University of Illinois College of Law"

Arbitration Of International Oil, Gas, And Energy Disputes In Latin America, Alexia Brunet, Juan Agustin Lentini

Publications

No abstract provided.

Superstition-Based Injustice In Africa And The United States: The Use Of Provocation As A Defense For Killing Witches And Homosexuals, Jennifer Dumin

ExpressO

This Article examines two different instances where strong cultural and religious beliefs suggest that an individual is justified in taking another’s life. Focusing primarily on South Africa and the United States, it argues that the rationale used to defend those who kill suspected witches and those who kill suspected homosexuals is the same – merely because a criminal holds a belief that the victim is evil, the criminal is somehow entitled to a lesser punishment. In the United States, those who readily recognize the absurdity of the witchcraft defense may have some difficulty in recognizing the same level of absurdity …

Adr Through A Cultural Lens: How Cultural Values Shape Our Disputing Processes, Julia Ann Gold

Journal of Dispute Resolution

I arrived for my second Nepali language class on time, but the teacher kept chatting about inconsequential things. I was paying by the hour, and we had already spent 25 minutes talking about nothing! A week later, I received an invitation to an art exhibit. The location was "Royal Museum," so that is where I went, only to find an empty building and no people. What had I missed? In my first meeting with the Dean of the Law Campus, we talked about trekking, the upcoming religious holidays, his visit to Seattle two years ago, relatives in the United States, …

The Chameleon Mediator, Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In the early phases of the Anglo-American mediation movement, certain models were promoted in theory and training and applied in practice. The models differed, depending on the background of the trainers/mediators, the cultural context and the jurisdiction in which the training and practice took place. In the mediation world of shared understandings and collaboration, there was often competition and sometimes even conflict among advocates of the various theories, models, approaches and styles.

Diversity Issues In Mediation: Controlling Negative Cultural Myths, Isabelle R. Gunning

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article (by a concerned supporter) explores this criticism of mediation. Part II surveys the critics who argue that mediation's informality and lack of procedure disadvantages members of minority groups and women. Part II then takes the next step that the critics have not taken, explaining how mediation could affect adversely disadvantaged groups. Part III suggests solutions to the problem which involve a greater level of mediator intervention than is generally accepted and defends these solutions.

Cultural Neutrality: A Prerequisite To Arbitral Justice, Giorgio Bernini

Michigan Journal of International Law

In common parlance, neutrality is often equated with impartiality. Any such assimilation, however, would be incorrect, since neutrality and impartiality are intrinsically different. At the risk of oversimplification, neutrality may be defined as an objective status, i.e. the likelihood that the arbitrator will be, and remain, wholly equidistant in thought and action throughout the arbitral proceedings. Impartiality, on the contrary, partakes more of a subjective status, to be tested in the context of the concrete relations existing between the arbitrator(s) and each individual party. It follows that one can be impartial without being neutral; and conversely, that no arbitrator may …