I was going to post the piece below riffing on Arthur C. Brooks’s column about de-polarizing political biases. And then came the Democratic presidential debates this week, which provided a glaring example of how political biases often are generated and spread. This post uses these debates as an illustration of the process and then discusses … Continue reading Political De-Biasing
At the Past-and-Future Conference last month, I was on a program with Doug Frenkel, Michaela Keet, and Donna Stienstra entitled, “Research and Scholarship with a Real-World Focus: Studying What Practitioners Actually Do.” This program followed one on research terminology and methodology, described in this post. This program was in a conversational format, framed around several … Continue reading Studying What DR Practitioners Actually Do
There was an excellent program on methodologies and terminology for research with a real-world focus at June’s past-and-future conference co-sponsored by Pepperdine’s Straus Institute, the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, and Texas A&M Law’s Aggie Dispute Resolution Program. It featured an all-star cast of Howard Herman, Russell Korobkin, Donna Shestowsky, and Roselle Wissler, with moderation … Continue reading Appreciating Legacy / Engaging Future Program on Methodologies and Terminology for Research with a Real-World Focus
Conflict Resolution Quarterly publishes scholarship on relationships between theory, research, and practice in the conflict resolution and ADR fields. Conflict Resolution Quarterly is sponsored by the Association for Conflict Resolution. This call for papers is designed to elicit the latest research, evaluations, and practice notes in the field of Mediation. Each article should include a … Continue reading Call for Papers: Trends and Innovations in Mediation Research
The New York Times “smarter living” column has an interesting piece about letting go of grudges and forgiving others. It cites research about the benefits of doing so. A 2006 study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology as part of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, suggested that “skills-based forgiveness training may prove effective in reducing … Continue reading Letting Go and Forgiving
At the upcoming Pepperdine Past-and-Future Conference, much of the discussion will be about engaging the real world of dispute resolution. This post recommends that to help do this, we develop a common language of dispute resolution and increasingly use qualitative research methods. We Should Set a Top Priority to Develop Clearer Common Language of DR … Continue reading Understanding Actual DR Practice and Communicating Clearly About It
The first episode of the Serial podcast’s new season is a dramatic illustration of how much you can learn from a single case. The case involves a young white woman who was prosecuted for her participation in a bar fight. The Serial team are incredible storytellers, so this podcast is not “just” educational, but it … Continue reading Serial Podcast Shows How Much You Can Learn From a Single Case
GFOI Donna Shestowsky (California-Davis) recently wrote the latest in a series of her studies asking actual litigants about their procedural preferences. The article is Inside the Mind of the Client: An Analysis of Litigants’ Decision Criteria for Choosing Procedures, 36 Conflict Resolution Quarterly 69 (2018). Here’s the abstract: This article presents findings from the … Continue reading What Do Litigants Really Want?
“[I]f . . . I act for the Big Bad Wolf against Little Red Riding Hood and I don’t want this dispute resolved, I want to tie it up as long as I possibly can, and mandatory mediation is custom made. I can waste more time, I can string it along, I can make sure … Continue reading A Good Bad-Faith Policy?
I love the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution annual conferences. They always put on a wide array of wonderful sessions and it’s a great time to connect with friends, old and new. As in the past, I am listing some sessions that particularly intrigue me. This reflects my idiosyncratic tastes and it would be a … Continue reading ABA Conference Sessions You Might Enjoy
Recently, I did a post about a new book that Forrest (“Woody”) Mosten co-authored about unbundled legal services. Woody just sent me a link to a podcast conversation he had with our friend, Dr. Julie Macfarlane, the director of the National Self-Represented Litigants Project (NSRLP). In this podcast, entitled “Back to the Future of Legal … Continue reading Conversation Between Julie Macfarlane and Woody Mosten about Unbundling and Self-Represented Litigants
Some questions for law professors: Why did you go to law school? Why did you decide to go into academia? What do you want to accomplish in your work? What do you hope for your students? In this post, I give my answers to these questions, which I think will resonate for many readers of … Continue reading Stone Soup, Reflective Practice, Action Research, and Social Justice