I just read this blog post by John Sturrock, a preeminent Scottish mediator who has long worked to mediate political conflicts involving Scotland and the United Kingdom. He was active before the recent referendum on Scottish independence and he has been working on issues related to “Brexit,” the withdrawal of the UK from the European … Continue reading Fascinating Simulation of Political Mediation in Scotland
You may recall that, a year ago, I suggested that if Donald J. Trump was elected president, “we will undoubtedly replace Getting to Yes with Art of the Deal” in our negotiation courses. After his spectacular failure to get to enough “yeses” to enact the Republican health care bill, I’m starting to have second thoughts. … Continue reading Learning from Trump’s Negotiation Failure
“[E]xtremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And . . . moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!” So said Senator Barry Goldwater a half a century ago when he accepted the Republican nomination for president in 1964. He lost that election in a landslide, so extremism apparently wasn’t such a … Continue reading Is Political Moderation a Virtue These Days?
We have such an incredible group of people in our community doing wonderful work in so many different areas. Forty years ago, at the 1976 Pound Conference, Frank Sander proposed the multi-door courthouse. Before then, mediation and arbitration had been widely used in the labor context for decades but there wasn’t much else going on … Continue reading Global Pound Conference, Papal Encyclical on the Environment, and Cyberweek
When relevant to DR issues, I have noted things in our political life such as President Obama’s lectures on listening and compromise, Republican nominee Donald J. Trump’s book, The Art of the Deal, and the applicability of an arbitration clause in Gretchen Carlson’s suit against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. In her acceptance speech … Continue reading A History Lesson in Negotiation
GFOI Bernie Mayer has a wonderful blog, Staying with Conflict – the Election Edition 2016. Our political discourse is a far cry from what we learned in high school civics class. Past elections have displayed serious problems of misrepresentation, fearmongering, and evasion of serious discussion of critical issues. But it is so much worse this … Continue reading Bernie Mayer’s Great Blog – Staying with Conflict During this Crazy Election
My friend, Lisa Renee Pomerantz, a New York lawyer and neutral, wrote an article on consumer arbitration in ACResolution that you might want to check out. It chronicles a history of efforts to regulate and improve consumer arbitration, leading up to the recent study and proposed rules issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. It … Continue reading Pomerantz and DR Section on Consumer Arbitration
Last week I announced the Divided Community Project housed at OSU’s Moritz College of Law. Today—in the second of three posts—I wanted to share the Project’s first publications. Key Considerations for Community Leaders Facing Civil Unrest: Effective Problem-Solving Strategies That Have Been Used in Other Communities, provides background information and expertise for local community leaders … Continue reading Addressing Community Division and Civil Unrest – Divided Community Project Part 2
In November, John asked “How can we help in major social conflicts, if at all?” I was dying to respond with an idea we’ve been working on here at Moritz, but the Divided Community Project wasn’t quite ready. Today—in the first of a series posts about the project—The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law’s … Continue reading Announcing the Divided Community Project at Moritz – Part 1
Here’s an account of the negotiations leading up to the international climate change agreement. Apparently, there was an accidental change of the word “should” to “shall” in one passage, which almost sunk the deal. A lesson to law students and lawyers everywhere. The story of this extremely complex negotiation really is fascinating, especially following the … Continue reading One Word
