Significant Aspects of Teaching Legal Negotiations to Law Students in Russia

Abstract

The paper deals with the overview, prioritization and analysis of the elements that are inalienable in legal negotiations and teaching modules of the course on negotiations. An experienced legal negotiating coach keeps in mind a number of vital elements of the course, such as personal ch aracteristics of learners, stylistic patterns and cultural features. The data collected in the research supports the fact that cultural shifts reflected in the statements of negotiators have a direct impact on the negotiation result and often lead to misunderstandings and inability to reach an agreement. For instance, Russian businessmen often unconsciously apply inflexible aggressive integrated strategy of negotiations. Thus, the negotiation course module devoted to cultural awareness and appropriate negotiating strategies development should contain, inter alia, information connected with authentic reactions of negotiators belonging to a particular ethnic group, and this information should be scrutinized and deeply considered. Consequently, it will be useful to apply the priming teaching technique through the comparison and analysis of students’ responsive statements with native speakers’ responsive statements in one and the same simulation which will facilitate mastering successful negotiation skills leading to a package deal beneficial for all parties.