This morning, I read the here-linked Guardian story reporting that Jurgen Habermas has died.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/15/jurgen-habermas-obituary

I know no credible scholars in our field who would accuse Habermas of being easy to read. And I am not the right person to write a thorough, or maybe even thoughtful, examination of the ADR-specific impacts of Habermas’s notions of deliberative democracy, ideal speech situations, and dialogue. (Perhaps we can collectively ask Carrie Menkel-Meadow to step in here? Or others?) I can, however, offer two things this morning:

1. Most philosophical conversations in our field seem eventually to wind back to either Lon Fuller or Jurgen Habermas for their philosophical foundations.

And

2. The Guardian’s profile was an interesting, even if it was sometimes not-easy-to-read. With this last aspect of it perhaps being fitting.

I recommend it.