Comments on: Panel 5: Emerging Issues in DSD

By: Yared Alula

Yared Alula — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:08:00 +0000

One of the questions posed by an audience member was how to change an institutional culture of racism or sexism?

I wonder how this relates to the ethical standards that Carrie Menkel-Meadow posed? When an abhorrent culture pervades an institution and is likely to affect the outcome of any dispute system design, how willing should the DSD community be to involve itself?

By: Yared Alula

Yared Alula — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 18:00:24 +0000

In reference to Carrie’s comments on DSD ethics, I am curious to know how people respond to her idea that we are not ready for an ethics code in DSD? If we know it (unethical situations) when we see it, and can feel it when it exists, why not catalogue it?

Do we lose anything by starting early? Is it wrong if we are forced to make adjustments later?

By: Yared Alula

Yared Alula — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:58:01 +0000

I completely agree with Brian Bloch’s comment about DSD being sensitive to religious theology rather than based on it. Upon first blush it may seem unlikely that DSD within religious institutions can succeed if it is not based in the theology. But it may be the case that religious organizations view DSD as more independent and neutral if the design only respects the theology. The alternative might signal to stakeholders that the doctrine can be manipulated for the gain or some and to the detriment of others.

By: Yared Alula

Yared Alula — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:44:01 +0000

To add to David Lee’s post, perhaps the best way to increase the demand for DSD instruction within law schools would be to show students how DSD can be applied in the large law firm context to the benefit of their career. Students demand that which improves their ability to be successful so perhaps the optimal way of increasing the demand would be to focus more on the application of DSD and less on theory.
To David’s question, I feel that the optimal way of teaching DSD is through clinical experience. In my opinion as a student, absent some real world application, DSD theory will not make it out of the classroom.

By: Jim Krenn

Jim Krenn — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:22:31 +0000

After listening to various questions posed by audience members, what are people’s thoughts on how, when approaching dispute system design, one should balance structuring the system towards most effectively addressing and satisfying parties’ interests while at the same time accounting for the power and rights aspects (i.e. legal system, hierarchal positions of parities, resource disparities) that pervade the realities of the situation?

By: Jim Krenn

Jim Krenn — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 18:09:58 +0000

Given the discussion over which individuals or entities should/can be the leaders on conflict resolution, what do people view as necessary for an organization to be the premiere conflict resolution organization?

It seems Stephanie raised an important point that such an organization likely can benefit from having individuals with a diversity of skill sets from both the legal and business world. For instance, I think many of the conflicts we see to day in the corporate context entail integrated issues of law and business (among others). There is a strong tendency among lawyers and principles alike to attempt to separate these issues into silos both in terms of substance and process where the lawyers tackle the “legal” issues and the principles tackle the “business” issues. The resulting disconnect of these silos from reality results in amplified conflict in which the broader, underlying issues are not dealt with in an effective manner. I think anyone developing an organization dedicated to conflict resolution must consider this interplay when structuring their teams and approach.

By: Jim Krenn

Jim Krenn — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:43:36 +0000

Brian’s discussion on the transportability of conflict management across conflicts provided many valuable insights and provoked a few questions. In particular, given Brian’s discussion on the increased intensity of many conflicts within religious organizations, how should one approach conflict management in a situation where positions on issues are wrapped in the identity and conflicting moral views of participants? I think Dan Shapiro has taken an important first step in attempting to address this question (http://www.beyond-reason.net/ini/), but what are others thoughts on strategies or tactics in such emotionally charged situations?

By: Jim Krenn

Jim Krenn — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:30:38 +0000

I think Bob’s comments regarding the benefits of expanding law school curriculum to include DSD are quite sensible. While the tendency for law schools to restrict much of their instruction to focusing on litigation related matters certainly does prepare students to enter that field, a very large portion of law students will never, and have no desire to, set foot in a courtroom. As a consequence, the near total reliance of teaching through cases prevents students from most efficiently building upon the analytical and practical skills that they will need upon graduation.

Including a greater emphasis on DSD certainly seems to be a step in rectifying the current imbalance. The challenge, for Bob and others, I believe, is making sure that in defining how DSD is taught, they are training truly holistic and effective “doctors”, as Bob put it, that can both effectively diagnose and treat a problem. That is, not to limit DSD instruction to simply providing an effective diagnostic tool (i.e. recognition that triple bypass isn’t the best way to help a broken bone) but also make sure students have the necessary skills to implement useful solutions (i.e how to set the bone).

By: Bob Bordone

Bob Bordone — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:57:49 +0000

Thanks to all of your for your great comments. I missed these ones because I was on the panel.

I think Bernie Bonn’s point is a good one. Law firms are doing lots of DSD work. But they are not calling it that.

And one of the challenges is that most law firms don’t know much about what we are doing in the DSD world. So they are making it up as they go along.

I think we need to do a better job, therefore, of exposing law students to this material so that they can use it when they get to firms.

In addition — and of equal importance — we need to figure out ways that we can learn more about what lawyers in these large firms are doing so that we can write about it and teach it to others.

By: Lisa Blomgren Bingham

Lisa Blomgren Bingham — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:26:30 +0000

African-American scholars of DSD include Lamont Stallworth of Loyola University, who has done considerable work on the design and evaluation of employment dispute resolution systems and mediation of EEO claims, and Phyllis Bernard, who is doing very exciting work in DSD in Rwanda, helping a group there build mediation into community justice systems. There is also an ongoing effort, the 3rd National Training Institute of Minority Professionals in Alternative Dispute Resolution http://www.law.capital.edu/ADR/ that is open to the public. Finally, Maria Volpe at John Jay School of Criminal Justice in NYC and Josh Stulberg at Ohio State University had a Hewlett mini-grant to address the ongoing absence of diversity in the field.