News & Archive

(November 16, 2004)

Confronting the Crisis in Conflict Resolution

Professor David E. Matz (J.D. Harvard University) will discuss Bernard Mayer's recent book, Beyond Neutrality: Confronting the Crisis in Conflict Resolution. The book has received considerable attention in the ADR community for its provocative questions about the field: What's wrong with conflict resolution? Why aren't more individuals and organizations using conflict resolution when they have a problem? Why doesn't the public know more about it? What are the limits of conflict resolution? When does conflict resolution work and when does it not?

David E. Matz is the founder and director of the Graduate Programs in Dispute Resolution at UMass Boston. He is an active dispute intervenor, serving as a Superior Court mediator and as a private practitioner. Professor Matz has focused his work on the techniques of mediation and negotiation, and on the relationship of these to the workings of organizations and courts. In the United States, he has led in the development and use of assessment tools for court mediators, trained mediators, judges, and engineers. In Israel, he was central in developing policy and practice for the Israeli Ministry of Justice and Supreme Court in integrating mediation into the judicial system. He has also applied these approaches to the peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Following the DRF is a Peervision case with Eleanor Druckman, a Boston-based mediator, who will present a case highlighting the use of wisdom, humor, and intuition to break an impasse in an employment dispute with family and community implications in a small New England town.

Please RSVP to Kim Wright, klwright@law.harvard.edu, or by fax to (617) 495-7818.

Time and Place
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Pound 335 — click for map
DRF: 8:30-10:00am (Continental Breakfast at 8:00)
Peervision Case Conference: 10:15-11:30am