News & Archive

(March 8, 2006)

Wednesday, March 15, 2006
8:30-10:00am (Continental Breakfast at 8:00)
Harvard Law School
John Chipman Gray Room, 2nd Floor, Pound Hall
(click for map)

Please join Professor Frank Sander and PON Visiting Scholar Ran Kuttner for a screening of "The Purple House Conversations," a filmed mediation simulation by the founders of the transformative approach to mediation, Baruch Bush and the Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation. The transformative approach reexamines the goal of mediation, suggesting that empowerment of the parties involved and their mutual recognition should be the main focus of the mediator.

Frank E. A. Sander is the Bussey Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is a leading expert on alternative methods of dispute resolution and is one of the pioneers of the field. Among other innovations, one of his early papers put forth the idea of the "Multi-Door Courthouse," a court system that helps direct disputants to the most appropriate route to resolution. Multi-Door Courthouse systems are presently in use in the United States in Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Texas, and Washington D.C., among other places, and internationally in Nigeria and Singapore.

Ran Kuttner, a visiting scholar at the Program on Negotiation, is a PhD candidate and lecturer at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. His dissertation focuses on philosophical aspects of mediation and negotiation. He has developed a program for certifying mediators in Israel and he teaches mediation and negotiation.

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