I don’t fear death. I do fear dying, however. Modern medicine can perform seeming miracles in some situations. But it also can ensnare patients in a tangle of cords, tubes, machines, personnel with varying degrees of sympathy and helpfulness, rigid procedures and schedules, being jabbed by sharp needles, sounds, lights, sleep disruptions, disturbances, loss of … Continue reading Suggestions for Dying (and Living)
This short article presents accounts of ten mediators about the factors affecting how we handle continuing streams of mediations – our mediation systems. These systems are the combination of factors affecting what mediators do before, during, and after mediation sessions. The systems include their routine procedures and strategies for dealing with recurring challenging situations. The … Continue reading Ten Real Mediation Systems
There is no good definition of ADR, as described in a recent post. This post suggests that it’s time for a paradigm shift in our field. Instead of identifying our field as ADR, we should use dispute system design (DSD) as our central theoretical framework. Time for a Paradigm Shift Thomas S. Kuhn’s classic book, … Continue reading Shifting the Central Paradigm to Dispute System Design
If two rocket scientists don’t correctly understand each other’s jargon, things could blow up real fast. If laypeople don’t understand the scientists, however, no problem. It’s quite different in the dispute resolution field. Parties are supposed to actively participate in mediation (and other dispute resolution processes to some extent), and thus they need to understand … Continue reading Houston, We Have a Problem in the Dispute Resolution Field
The 12th Speziale ADR Symposium, Is Virtual Justice Just?, will be held at Quinnipiac University School of Law on Friday, November 4, 2022, from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This symposium is divided into two sessions, each with its own focus. The morning session, Virtual Trials: What’s the Verdict?, will examine how virtual trials, including virtual juries, have … Continue reading Quinnipiac Symposium on November 4: Is Virtual Justice Just?
From Stanford Professor Jane Schacter: I am chairing the search committee to replace the retiring Jan Martinez as Director of Stanford’s Gould Center Program on Negotiation and Mediation. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit their applications by December 1, 2022, but applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Click here for … Continue reading Searching for Director of Stanford’s Gould Center Program on Negotiation and Mediation
Question: Where does conflict come from? Answer: Normal, unconflicted life. Building on Felstiner, Abel, and Sarat’s classic article describing the genesis of disputes, Naming, Blaming, Claiming, this overgrown blog post uses memoirs to analyze how people develop “perceived injurious experiences” (PIEs), some of which become grievances (when they blame others), and some of which become … Continue reading Slices of Conflict in Life
President Biden caused a little brouhaha when he said that the pandemic is over. I think that he was trying to convey that what I called the “crisis new normal” had given way to a “normal new normal.” Indeed, life is very different than March 2020, when we didn’t know much about the virus. Remember … Continue reading The Normal New Normal in the US, Circa September 2022
I will present a draft of my article, Real Mediation Models to Help Parties and Mediators Achieve Their Goals, at the Works-in-Progress conference next month and I am posting it now so that you can read it before then if you like. People can attend the conference in person or by video – and I … Continue reading Would you like to read a WIP draft?
The news media have a well-known bad-news bias. If something bad is happening or – better yet – threatening to happen, the headlines scream of impending disaster. Good news, not so much coverage. If something good happens, including averted potential disasters, ho-hum. There is much less coverage and it’s much less prominent. Such was the … Continue reading Mediators Help Save the Economy
