Tag Archives: seeing the world through others’ eyes

Using Dispute Resolution Skills to Teach Current Events

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From AFFOI Rishi Batra: On Monday, July 29th, several law professors from around the country who teach alternative dispute resolution met at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) conference in Boca Raton, FL for a wide-ranging discussion entitled “Using Dispute Resolution Skills to Teach Current Events.”  Among those present were Cynthia Alkon (Texas A&M), … Continue reading Using Dispute Resolution Skills to Teach Current Events →

Political De-Biasing

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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 →

For Pragmatic Romanticism About ADR, Understanding Why the “Haves” Come Out Ahead

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“Mediators equalize the power between the parties.”  Have you heard that claim? I used to hear it with some frequency, though (fortunately) not much lately. Considering this idea even for a nano-second, obviously it is wildly optimistically untrue as a generalization – and it doesn’t even make sense in individual cases. Some of the discussion … Continue reading For Pragmatic Romanticism About ADR, Understanding Why the “Haves” Come Out Ahead →

We Have to Love More, Hate Less. We Got to Listen More and Talk Less.

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These are words of Megan Rapinoe, star of the US Women’s Soccer team, which just won the World Cup. She continued, “We got to know that this is everybody’s responsibility. Every single person here, every single person who’s not here, every single person who doesn’t want to be here. Every single person who agrees and … Continue reading We Have to Love More, Hate Less. We Got to Listen More and Talk Less. →

Benefits of Reframing “Reparations”

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Many Democratic candidates for president have addressed questions about whether the US should make “reparations” for slavery (and other social injustices).  Unfortunately, that term is confusing and scary for some people (including some of the candidates) who conceive of it simply as making cash payments to certain individuals. In fact, the proponents are suggesting something … Continue reading Benefits of Reframing “Reparations” →

More about Our Need for Truth and Reconciliation

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Several new articles reflect what I think are good and bad approaches to dealing with historic injustices that I described in a recent post. For some reason, a 1971 Playboy interview of John Wayne just went viral.  In it, he said, “I believe in white supremacy,” and justified “our so-called stealing of our country” from … Continue reading More about Our Need for Truth and Reconciliation →

Our Need for Truth, Reconciliation, and Justice

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Donald Trump.  Anthony Weiner.  Ralph Northam.  Kevin McCarthy.  Justin Fairfax.  Steve King.  Antonin Scalia.  Brett Kavanaugh.  Roy Moore.  Al Franken.  James Watt.  Bill Clinton.  Ronald Reagan.  Richard Nixon.  George H.W. Bush.  Bernie Sanders.  Spiro Agnew.  Eric Schneiderman.  Ilhan Omar.  Eliot Spitzer.  Harry Reid.  Mike Huckabee.  Joe Biden.  George Allen.  Ben Carson.  Paul Ryan.  Jesse Jackson.  … Continue reading Our Need for Truth, Reconciliation, and Justice →

Reading List About Our Racial History

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As noted in this post about our need for truth, reconciliation, and justice about past injustices, Washington Post journalist James Hohmann compiled the following list of readings for Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to learn about our racial history based on suggestions of preeminent historians.  This is a good reading list for all of us to … Continue reading Reading List About Our Racial History →

Resources for Truth and Reconciliation

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A companion post discusses a great need for truth, reconciliation, and justice about past injustices in our society.  This post identifies some organizations in our field that work to promote these goals and uses language from their websites to describe their activities.  If you know of any resources that should be added to this list, … Continue reading Resources for Truth and Reconciliation →

Becoming Ourselves

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Michelle Obama’s fabulous memoir, Becoming, has valuable lessons for us in legal education and practice.  This post first summarizes the book and then describes some of these lessons. The book is a chronological narrative of Ms. Obama’s life, which is fascinating in itself, though I was particularly interested in her portrayals of the worlds she … Continue reading Becoming Ourselves →

Dispute System Design for Facebook

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The New York Times published an interesting article worth reading, which riffs on Mark Zuckerberg’s statement that Facebook would develop an independent body to make decisions about acceptability of posts on its platform.  He mused that the body might be like a supreme court to make final decisions reflecting global social norms. The article was … Continue reading Dispute System Design for Facebook →