A major motivation in the modern dispute resolution movement has been to increase and improve parties’ decision-making in their legal disputes. Historically, parties often had little opportunity to exercise much control after they retained attorneys to handle their disputes. Attorneys often acted paternalistically, taking control over virtually every aspect of the cases. The legal system … Continue reading Focus on Party Decision-Making
Charlie Irvine is the Course Leader on the University of Strathclyde’s (Scotland) MSc/LLM in Mediation and Conflict Resolution and the Director of the Strathclyde Mediation Clinic. The Clinic provides a free mediation service in which experienced practitioners work alongside trainee mediators to help people resolve disputes without going to court or tribunal. The following is … Continue reading Charlie Irvine’s Challenge to Mediators to Describe Your Mediation System
If there’s anything approaching unanimity in our field, it’s that it’s important to prepare in dispute resolution processes like mediation. So it’s almost boring to write about it. But I found some things that should be interesting and helpful for parties, practitioners, and mediation program administrators. Last December, I wrote a short article, The Critical … Continue reading How Can Courts – Practically for Free – Help Parties Prepare for Mediation Sessions?
How cool would it be for your students to interview lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, or other practitioners about how they really think and act in their work? Practitioners generally develop their own categories of routine and challenging situations in their work, and they develop regular practices and strategies for dealing with them. In mediation, this involves … Continue reading Teaching Students How Practitioners Really Think and Act
In The Critical Importance of Pre-Session Preparation in Mediation, I explained why parties’ preparation for their mediation sessions can produce many significant benefits. This post suggests that preparation before mediation sessions is an important opportunity for parties to empower themselves. People have used the concept of “empowerment” in mediation in various ways, as I described … Continue reading Party Self-Empowerment from Preparation for Mediation Sessions
Thanks to Andrea Schneider, the Cardozo Journal on Dispute Resolution’s faculty advisor, and its editors, the Journal just published articles by Professor Robert A. Baruch Bush and me expressing differing perspectives about basic mediation theory. I appreciate this opportunity to publish our perspectives and share them with readers. Prof. Bush’s article is Beyond the Toolbox: … Continue reading Bush’s and Lande’s Differing Perspectives of Mediation Theory
I am doing a research study entitled “Assessment of Real Practice Systems Experience” to assess how well Real Practice Systems assignments and exercises have worked in courses, trainings, and continuing education programs as well as for individual practitioners. I’m writing to invite you to participate in this study. In this document, I describe how faculty … Continue reading Would You Like to Get the Benefit of the Real Practice Systems Project and Share Your Experiences?
I developed a variety of assignments that faculty can use to help students better understand mediation, advocacy in mediation, negotiation, or other regular procedures. The assignments grow out of my article, Real Mediation Systems to Help Parties and Mediators Achieve Their Goals in the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution. You might assign students to read … Continue reading More Ways to Help Students Understand Dispute Resolution Practice
The Real Practice Systems (RPS) Project grew out of dissatisfaction with traditional mediation theories, which are incomplete and misleading. I first articulated RPS theory in my 2023 Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution article, Real Mediation Systems to Help Parties and Mediators Achieve Their Goals. It identifies problems with traditional mediation theories, argues that dispute system … Continue reading Real Practice Systems Project
It’s indisputable that preparation before mediation sessions is very important – both for the participants and the mediators. This can make a huge difference in the process and outcome. Parties (and their lawyers, if any) need to be prepared to discuss the facts, law, interests, and/or negotiation approaches etc. This is hard enough when they … Continue reading The Critical Importance of Pre-Session Preparation in Mediation
