DR Works In Progress

Marquette University Law School has just wrapped up its interesting sounding Dispute Resolution Works in Progress Conference.

The Conference was a gathering of scholars teaching and researching in dispute resolution.

The list of papers is an eclectic offering and this one in particular caught my eye; How To Behave In a China Shop: New Forms of Advocacy In Mediation by Prof Jonathan Hyman, Rutgers Law School

Prof Hyman observes that "Lawyers with their adversarial methods may become proverbial bulls in mediation’s china shops...."

To address this problem, Hyman identifies four different mental frameworks through which mediators can do their work.

They are;

1) distributive negotiation

2) value-creating or interest-based negotiation

3) the relationship and communication between the disputing parties

4) a broader concept of the conflict or dispute, variously characterized in the literature as a clash of narratives, a failure of understanding, or a lack of sufficient empowerment and recognition.

[read more]

A paper by Michael Moffitt, Oregon School of Law also looked interesting (no link unfortunately); The Four Ways to Improve Mediator Quality (and why none of them will work) but maybe he will post it to his Indisputably law profs' blog...

Hat tip to Andrea Schneider over at Indisputably