I was pleasantly surprised to read in my daughter’s sleepaway camp newsletter that the camp spends time each week teaching the girls conflict resolution skills: Tonight, the counselors are putting on the first Creative Service of the summer. Creative Service is a time to pause and reflect on the lessons learned here at camp. Tonight’s … Continue reading Teaching Conflict Resolution Skills Early
The Restorative Justice in Adult Courts Committee of the Missouri Restorative Justice Coalition is sponsoring a symposium on Restorative Justice in Adult Criminal Courts on Friday Nov. 13, 2009, at the University of Missouri-Columbia. During the morning plenary session experts in the field, both academics and practitioners, will present papers on restorative justice in adult courts. The workshops in … Continue reading Restorative Justice Conference in Missouri for Missouri
The ABA’s Dispute Resolution Section has just issued its Call for Proposals for the Section’s annual meeting next April in San Francisco. A copy of the Call for Proposals can be seen here, and the proposal form can be accessed here. As an fyi, priority is given to proposals that introduce new and innovative concepts, … Continue reading Call for Proposals – ABA Dispute Resolution Section Conference
No, that’s not a typo. And no, I am not among the persistent number who treat “arbitration” and “mediation” as coterminous. I mean “Mediation.” And I mean “Separability.” I was reading a recent case — Santana v. Olguin, 208 P.3d 328 (Kan.App., May 29, 2009), and it made me wonder how courts treat mediation provisions … Continue reading Mediation and the Separability Doctrine
North Korea recently sentenced two U.S. journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, to 12 years of hard labor for illegally crossing the North Korean border. By all accounts imprisonment in North Korea, especially in a labor camp, is horrible and potentially life-threatening. The question now is whether their early release can be negotiated. This … Continue reading What are their interests? Negotiating with North Korea
Professor Susan Franck at Washington and Lee has an interesting new paper about investment treaty arbitration that just hit SSRN. The paper disputes assertions of certain governments (like Bolivia and Ecuador) that suggest the investment treaty process is unfairly tilted against the developing world. In addition it makes a case for using ADR and Dispute … Continue reading Development and Outcomes of Investment Treaty Arbitration
I just learned that my University is closing its Ombuds Office, to save resources in these tight times, and instead is spreading out its functions among various related offices (student complaints to Dean of Students Office; employee disputes to Human Resources, etc.). It seems to me that this economically-driven decision clearly undervalues dispute resolution. While those … Continue reading Are Ombuds Offices Expendable?
Read Professor Black’s Securities Law Prof Blog posting here.
From p. 72 of the Treasury Department’s Financial Regulatory Reform blueprint (entitled “A New Foundation: Rebuilding Financial Supervision and Regulation”) released today: The SEC should study the use of mandatory arbitration clauses in investor contracts. Broker-dealers generally require their customers to contract at account opening to arbitrate all disputes. Although arbitration may be a reasonable … Continue reading The Obama Administration’s Plan for Securities Arbitration
In contrast to the election turmoil occurring in Iran, an interesting alternative for settling an election occurred in suburban Phoenix yesterday. The City of Cave Creek recently had an election for their city council and two candidates had a runoff election for the last council seat. They ended up tied with 660 votes each. How did … Continue reading Elections and Dispute Resolution – A Card Game
