Mediation On-Line A Newsletter from ADR Resources http://adrr.com/adr9/061.htm Volume 6, #4 (May-June 2003) From: srmarsh (at) adrr (dot) com Subscribe

Greetings:

With all of the writing on complexity that is taking over the ADR field, I thought I'd mention John Warfield (http://www.ajarmail.com/) the original complexity researcher.  The Institute for Advanced Study in the Integrative Sciences in  is still on-line at http://www.gmu.edu/departments/t-iasis/ and the free materials are impressive.  John's most accessible book is available at http://www.ajarmail.com/bookordering.html.  The book "Understanding Complexity" is a must read for any scholar in the Dispute Resolution field.

Interesting new Mediation & ADR (and other) web sites:

• http://home.uchicago.edu/~tedr/decision_14.pdf is a great paper on risk management.  If you have an interest in the area, I can recommend the paper.  If you are looking for employment in the area, I can suggest you visit the utdallas.edu website.
• An interesting remembrance of 9/11 is at http://www.boston.com/news/packages/sept11/anniversary/globe_stories/090802_buckingham_entire.htm
• http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/03/13/tech_workers/index.html on finding employment.
• http://chronicle.com/jobs/2003/04/2003040801c.htm is an article about ethics. More entertaining than substantive, it still has some relevance for educators.
• http://www.paulwtaylor.com is a reworked mediator's site.
• http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/adr/clearinghouse.html is the EEOC's clearinghouse of ADR information.
• A useful site is http://www.reversephonedirectory.com/ and a fun alternative to google is http://www.teoma.com/ (though google is still my home page).
• Emotions and Conflict: A Selected Bibliography By Catherine Morris is at http://www.peacemakers.ca/bibliography/bib14emotion.html
• http://ahpweb.org/cbi/home.html is the web site for our 2003 11th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONFLICT RESOLUTION (ICR)
• For an online information on federal EEO processes and laws, see the Department of Defense Education Activity page on Equal Employment Opportunity at http://www.odedodea.edu/eeo/
• www.nolotech.com is the "other" Nolo (the original, but smaller one).
• Free videos on-line for mediators at http://www.directionservice.org/cadre/
• http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1048518257102 Planning a Web Site With Some Punch
• http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel041103.asp an article on pacifists.  I know I had the wrong reaction to it, since I shared it with my daughter and we both felt the Moriori had made the right decision.
• http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V8F-3V5MPGJ-B&_user=10&_handle=W-WA-A-A-E-MsSAYVA-UUA-AUCAVVCEDE-CWZDAWYVV-E-U&_fmt=summary&_coverDate=10%2F30%2F1998&_rdoc=4&_orig=browse&_srch=%23toc%235869%231998%23999629997%2331957!&_cdi=5869&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=1c927b3d46df49b3f5e9909075a770f2 is a great note on the importance of pool selection when doing studies on "human" behavior (and in line with my essay "Are lawyers 'real' humans?"
• http://www.law2.byu.edu/lawreview/archives/2002/3/OMA5.pdf is an interesting review, in light of Sanatorium's comments on marriage. (Ok, I've punned his name).
• http://www.janegalt.net/blog/archives/004125.html fascinating post -- neatly commented on by Volokh, et al.  I'm not joining in on the debate, just pointing it out as important to understand if you end up mediating in a campus environment -- not to mention asking the question of where does mediation fit as a discipline in that discussion.  One other thread (on the other side) at http://farrell.blogspot.com/2003_04_27_farrell_archive.html#93614393 might help.
• If you are the victim of an autodialer or a junk fax, read http://www.panix.com/~eck/telemarket.html. I would note that I met someone who makes a living off of his fax machine by suing people who send him junk faxes.
• Be careful of wanting to be on the U.S. Supreme Court.  You could well have your life described as follows: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/news/posner-antihero.html (and yes, the review is truthful, but there are a number out there about various Justices that are not, the truth matters to Posner, but not others).

Short Comment One

Sherry Colb, a professor at Rutgers, observed:

"The Bakke doctrine, built - as it is - around diversity, provides little guidance for the practice of affirmative action in education. Perhaps as a result, those on the left who strongly support preferences and view them as a moral imperative often use the word "diversity" as a synonym for race-conscious redistribution of educational benefits.

Those on the right, who strongly oppose such programs, similarly scoff at the notion that minority students add needed diversity to the student body and propose that if the left were truly serious about "diversity," it would (as it frankly should) seek to recruit people of different ideological viewpoints and scholarly traditions."

I think that provides an excellent perspective for anyone who is trying to mediate such a conflict.  One side has the issue in moral terms (making it a principle conflict) and the other sees it in terms of disenfrancising that side's perspective.  Who is right?  Perhaps both?  Perhaps neither?  Perhaps a mediator can find a third way?

The Recommended Books of the Month, With Thoughts

The deadline for entries in the 2003 Boskey Dispute Resolution Essay Competition is May 30, 2003. All law students enrolled in ABA accredited schools and graduate students are encouraged to submit an essay on a topic of their choice related to dispute resolution. The winning essay in each category is awarded a prize of $1,000.

The Boskey Essay Competition is a collaboration between the Association for Conflict Resolution and ABA Section of Dispute Resolution. For more information about the essay competition and an entry form, see the ACR web site at <http://www.ACResolution.org> or the Section of Dispute Resolution's web site at <http://www.abanet.org/dispute>.

There is a new article called "Copyright in Compilations." Since all of those reading this notice are likely involved in one way or another with compliation issues, this article is a *must read.* It discusses a recent case dealing with these issues.

You can find the article at http://www.ivanhoffman.com/compilations.html

Leverage in Contract and Other Negotiations." The term "leverage" is frequently used but this article explains what it means and how to create or recognize it within specific situations. This article is *important* reading if you are any form of creator, whether writer, artist, web designer etc. or if you are a "money" party, meaning that you are a publisher, site owner, marketer, distributor etc.(both sides being equally important, as the article points out).

You can find the article at http://www.ivanhoffman.com/leverage2.html

Comment/Essay (Two)

In social psychology, the following beliefs have been shown to be completely false:

• Low self-esteem causes aggressiveness, drug use, prejudice, and low achievement.
• Abused children almost inevitably become abusive parents, causing a "cycle of abuse."
• Therapy is beneficial for most survivors of disasters, especially if intervention is rapid.
• Memory works like a tape recorder, clicking on at the moment of birth; memories can be accurately retrieved through hypnosis, dream analysis, or other therapeutic methods.
• Traumatic experiences, particularly of a sexual nature, are typically "repressed" from memory, or split off from consciousness through "dissociation."
• The way that parents treat a child in the first five years (three years) (one year) (five minutes) of life is crucial to the child's later intellectual and emotional success.

(for more, see the article at http://chronicle.com/free/v49/i25/25b00701.htm)

In reading the background materials to that list, I found myself thinking just what "essential truths" of mediation are just as false?  Chris Honeyman's work is the one solid beginning I have seen in that area, though I am pleased to note that the University of New Mexico's Law School ADR program is also addressing a number of the issues as well.

Educational Programs / News and Book Reviews/Books/Periodicals

The Peacetalk 101 Newsletter is written and published every other month by Suzette Haden Elgin, Ph.D. (linguistics), from the Ozark Center for Language Studies (OCLS), PO Box 1137, Huntsville, AR 72740-1137 USA; e-mail, ocls@madisoncounty.net. It's available by e-mail only, in plain text, and is free.  Send her an e-mail to request being put on the list.

www.natlctr4adr.org is the website for The Center for Alternative Dispute Resolution’s 15th ANNUAL CONFERENCE Managing Conflict and Removing Barriers to Collaborative Decision Making Martin’s Crosswinds - Greenbelt, MD

"CARLOS ZAMBRANO ARANDA" <c_zambrano15@hotmail.com> is a law school graduate and mediator in Peru who is currently studying tax law and the application of mediation to tax situations in Peru. He is looking for help with grants and educational stipends to aid him in his post doctorial research and education.  Please contact him directly.

Current Issues

Announcement:

The Professional Mediation Association is a wholly owned asset of the Middle Tennessee Mediation Center, Inc. The Association maintains an extensive web presence at www.Promediation.com and has been active in promoting Mediation and ADR and the promotion of mediation service providers since 1996. The Association provides referrals to those in need of mediation services and mediation information to its members who are professional mediation service providers.

A determination has been made to allow the Association, in its entirety, including the Association web site at www.Promediation.com, to be transferred to another entity or merged with another ADR service oriented organization. This transfer is available to individual service providers or established industry entities. This is not a sale of the Association but a transfer of control. The transferee will assume all rights, without limitation, to the website and the continued operation of the Association. A transfer fee of the Promediation website, unrestricted control of the Association and all rights pertaining thereto is set at $10,000.

If you or your organization is interested in assuming ownership and control of the Association web site and database please respond to this email notice.  Please visit the website at www.ProMediation.com to obtain a full understanding of the property to be transferred.

Ok, I don't see how this is not a sale, but it is interesting, and I wish them well.

A. R. Gaylord
Office of the National Director
Professional Mediation Association
1645 Martha Leeville Rd.
Lebanon, TN 37090
Ph - 615-512-0823
1-800-305-5978
www.Promediation.com

Submissions to adrr.com

As always, I am interested in any submissions or articles anyone would like to have posted on the web -- and I am glad to be able to point them out in this newsletter.  I prefer to post material as you have written it, with no editorial changes by myself.  srmarsh (at) adrr (dot) com is the best e-mail address to use to reach me, though I sometimes am not able to check my e-mail for 3 or 4 days.

With my best regards, I remain,

Sincerely yours,

Stephen Marsh
http://adrr.com/adr9/060.htm
Additional material is sometimes included in the on-line version.
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Quote:

At least 170,000 artifacts were carried away in the two-day frenzy of looting at the museum, home to one of the world's most extensive collections of Mesopotamian antiquities.

--NYT, April 24

Col. Matthew F. Bogdanos, a Marine reservist who is investigating the looting and is stationed at the museum, said museum officials had given him a list of 29 artifacts that were definitely missing. But since then, 4 items — ivory objects from the eighth century B.C. — had been traced.

"Twenty-five pieces is not the same as 170,000," said Colonel Bogdanos, who in civilian life is an assistant Manhattan district attorney.

-- NYT, May 1

For a counter-point on diversity by "[Juan Non-Volokh, 7:26 AM] (from volokh.blogspot.com)" here is the following (I think he is wrong, but it is interesting reading):

THE DIVERSITY CHARADE: The Univerisity of Michigan School of Law defends its use of racial preferences in admissions on the grounds of viewpoint diversity. Racial and ethnic diversity, Michigan claims, are needed to ensure a quality educational experience at the law school. Yet, as I noted a few months back, there is startlingly little viewpoint diversity among the faculty at the University of Michigan Law School -- a fact some Michigan law school administrators acknowledge.

A new study by Northwestern Law Professor John O. McGinnis and Columbia University law Student Mathew Schwartz documents the lack of viewpoint diversity at Michigan and other law schools by examining political contributions by professors. A summary of their findings is in today's WSJ (link here for WSJ Online subscribers). Here's a brief excerpt:

We reviewed all federal campaign contributions over $200 by professors at the top 22 law schools from 1994 to 2000. During that time, close to a quarter of these law professors contributed to campaigns -- a proportion far greater than the average citizen. The proof is stark: as the Anglican church was once described as the Tory Party at prayer, the legal academy today is best seen as the Democratic Party at the lectern. America splits evenly between the GOP and Democrats, but 74% of the professors contribute primarily to Democrats. Only 16% do so to Republicans.

At Michigan, they report, the differential is eight-to-one. Moreover, they suggest their study underreports the lack of ideological diversity because most campaign contributions to Republican candidates come from only a handful of schools.

The lack of meaningful viewpoint diversity on law school faculties suggests that viewpoint diversity is not the primary motivation behind law school affirmative action policies. As McInnis and Schwartz note, "When law schools make no progress (and no discernible effort) in correcting the patent absence of diversity in viewpoints, it is fair to assume that their true goal is racial patterning, not educational diversity." Michigan and other schools don't admit this because racial diversity, for its own sake, does not justify the state's use of racial classifications under existing Supreme Court precedent. Yet rather than challenge these precedents, and own up to the true purpose of racial preference programs, Michigan and other law schools engage in a diversity charade. "

Counter-counter-point ...

The State of Michigan, of course, contends just the opposite; its position is that racial diversity is one crucial component of elite-level academic excellence. I'm inclined to agree; my own personal experience of teaching for four years at a racially homogeneous law school (the University of Wyoming) and now at a racially integrated one (UNC) tells me that racial diversity does in fact contribute importantly to full and rigorous discussion and debate in a law school classroom. So at the end of the day, I guess I disagree with Scalia.

But he sure made me think.

http://volokh.blogspot.com/2003_04_06_volokh_archive.html#200108766

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