Arbitration & Mediation

Can We Negotiate Justice?

By Victoria Pynchon

Thanks to Geoff Sharp over at mediator blah blah for citing us to Justice Trumps Peace: the Enduring Relevance of Owen Fiss’s Against Settlement by Don Ellinghausen, Jr.  Geoff Sharp's excellent post on the issues raised (again) is here and Ellinghusen's exhaustive treatment of mediation's limitations and overblown claims here.

Agree with Fiss, Ellinghausen, Laura Nader and Carrie Menkel-Meadow or not, there shouldn't be a mediator practicing who is unaware of these serious criticisms of the mediation process.  If we're not aware of them, we can't avoid the potential for "muscle" mediation to prevent even the aspirational goal of delivering justice without regard to gender, color, power, social status, wealth and all the rest of the social markers the law has been so careful to avoid paying obeisance to.

Check it out.

Full post as published by Settle It Now Negotiation Blog on May 19, 2008 (boomark / email).