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Why Nobody REALLY Reads Law Review Notes.

By Christopher Annunziata

About a month ago, Prof. Moffitt of ADR Prof Blog suggested that I read Erica Fox?s Harvard Negotiation Law Review Note ?Alone in the Hallway?.   After some serious Googling could not locate the article, one of his kind readers posted a link to a copy (See Comments).

It starts out as an interesting piece.  A lone law student roaming the halls of the landlord-tenant court of a major metropolitan city, privy to otherwise confidential conversations between landlords, their lawyers and the poor tenants being sued for eviction.  High brow discussions of negotiation theory and self-agency and how the process is breaking down.

Then, Ms. Fox wrote, and I quote, because I’m not sure I could make this up:

Agentic legitimacy also helps negotiators to find and use their voices in actual negotiations.

Agentic legitimacy?  I actually let out an audible “HUH?” while, coincidentally, sitting in a hallway waiting to mediate small claims cases.  She actually used this “word” three or four times.   After a long search, it appears that while this word does not appear in any recognized English dictionary, it is used in certain type of social research.  This is not a word.   It is completely fabricated.  Like incentivize or proactive. But worse.

Oh, and to make matters worse, in a parenthetical for a string citation, she wrote:

Claiming ADR preferences harmony over justice . . .

Preferences? Sure.  Its a noun.  It means something preferred over another.   But how can ADR preference something?  Nobody at the presitigous HLS caught this?  It sounds like something Mike Tyson would say.  “I preference the ludicrousity of agentic legitimation.”

Frankly, I couldn’t finish the article.  It seemed like a treatment for an episode of 48 Hours or Dateline NBC, not a scholarly article.  Skimming to the end, I saw that the author concludes:

Tenant negotiators do not exercise self-agency effectively . . . This phenomena occurs generally when disadvantaged people negotiate in formal settings.

Economically disadvantaged, and poorly educated people unfamilair with the legal process fail to assert themselves and get taken advantage of in court?  Next you’ll tell me wrestling is fake.  This is why nobody really reads law review articles.  (No offense, Prof. Moffitt)

Full post as published by CKA Mediation and Arbitration Services Blog on August 01, 2008 (boomark / email).