Disputing Alternatives: Settlement as Science and as Politics

Abstract

Dispute Resolution, edited by three prominent representatives of the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) movement, is two quite different books in a volume. On the one hand, is a collection of some 60 excerpts drawn from a range of literature in dispute processing practice and theory. collection is eclectic, with articles ranging from detailed considerations of mediation and negotiation strategy (Getting to Yes, The Art and Science of Negotiation, The Strategy of Conflict) to subtle analyses that challenge conventional understandings of what negotiation, mediation, and adjudication consist of, and question the criteria used by many practitioners (including the editors of this book) for distinguishing them. These analyses include Eisenberg's work on the powerful role of implicit third parties in shaping the outcome of dyadic negotiation; Menkel-Meadow's discussion of how negotiation processes and structures differ according to the purposes involved; Felstiner and Williams's consideration of the importance for effective mediation of attention to deep structural issues that shape interpersonal disputes; and an account by Jimmy Carter that highlights the contingency of mediated settlements on the practice of particular mediators operating in particular relational and political settings. In a volume described as an overview of a fast-moving new field and intended to generate intensive discourse on some of the critical issues affecting it (at xviii), articles such as these should provide rich basis for debate. They point to the ways in which a single procedure such as mediation varies