Continuing with the series on models of conflict resolution that are not based on the parties' interests, below is reproduced another chapter in a proposed book on alternatives to Western mediation methods. This one -- the Arab practice of sulha -- is centuries old, pre-dating even the Prophet, and its motivating considerations are an...
As the next installment in a series of essays on alternatives to interest-based negotiation, the Hawaiian practice of ho'oponopono is discussed. In this spiritually-influenced ritual, secular conflicts are identified, brought to the table, admitted, and forgiven, and the family group achieves reconciliation and forgiveness....
Over the past years, many of us have been impressed by the limitations of both institutional dispute resolution systems (i.e., courts) and their alternatives (i.e., arbitration and mediation). At the same time, I've been increasingly drawn to examples found in certain societies whose shared spiritual beliefs have produced systems of dispute resolution that...
I am spending this week in beautiful Silver Bay, New York, on the western side of Lake George. There, at a grand old historic YMCA summer camp, the New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) holds its annual summer conference. Quakers are a "peculiar people"...
Prof. Joseph Allegretti wrote an interesting article ten years ago titled A Christian Perspective on Alternative Dispute Resolution, 28 Fordham Urb. L.J. 997 (2001). In it he tells the tale of St. Francis of Assisi's mediating a conflict between the residents of a town and a ravenous wolf that was...
Frederic Luskin, Director of the Stanford Forgiveness Projects, reminded a packed house at the ABA Dispute Resolution meeting in San Francisco that a 2-yr old who is told "no" screams and yells when she doesn't get what she wants, but then eventually stops and moves on to the next thing. ...
The third and final student paper I intend to share addresses the emergence of Islamic law in countries that are, or promise to be, important trade partners with western businesses. ...