Dispute Resolution

Dispute resolution generally refers to one of several different processes used to resolve disputes between parties, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, collaborative law, and litigation. Dispute resolution is the process of resolving a dispute or a conflict by meeting at least some of each side’s needs and addressing their interests. Dispute resolution strategies include fostering a rapport, considering interests and values separately, appealing to overarching values, and indirect confrontation.

Conflict resolution, to use another common term, is a relatively new field, emerging after World War II. Scholars from the Program on Negotiation were leaders in establishing the field.

Mediation can be effective at allowing parties to vent their feelings and fully explore their grievances. Working with parties together and sometimes separately, mediators try to help them hammer out a resolution that is sustainable, voluntary, and nonbinding. In arbitration, the arbitrator listens as each side argues its case and presents relevant evidence, then renders a binding decision. Litigation typically involves a defendant facing off against a plaintiff before either a judge or a judge and jury. The judge or jury is responsible for weighing the evidence and making a ruling. Information conveyed in hearings and trials usually enters the public record.

There are many aspects of disputes, including value creation opportunities, agency issues, organizational influences, ethical considerations, the role of law, and decision tools.

Articles offer numerous examples of dispute resolution and explore various aspects of it, including international conflict resolution, how it can be useful in your personal life, skills needed to achieve it, and training that hones those skills.

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Are You Listening to Me?

PON Staff   •  04/24/2012   •  Filed in Dispute Resolution

For your next negotiation, what would you pay for a gadget that shows you how well you’re engaging the other side?

It would tell you when you’ve been persuasive enough to close a deal.

It would also alert you when the other side has tuned you out, so you’d know how to take a different tack.

A team … Read Are You Listening to Me?

Opening Multiple Doors for Dispute Resolution

PON Staff   •  02/24/2012   •  Filed in Dispute Resolution

The Harvard Law School website featured a story about the Ministry of Justice in Chile hosting Harvard Law School Mediation and Clinical Program students Leah Kang (HLS ’12), Teresa Napoli (HLS ’13), and Apoorva Patel (HLS ’13), as well as HNMCP Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law Jeremy McClane (HLS ’02) so that the students … Read Opening Multiple Doors for Dispute Resolution

Former PON Graduate Research Fellow Featured in the “Boston Globe”

PON Staff   •  06/15/2011   •  Filed in Awards, Grants, and Fellowships, Daily, Dispute Resolution, Graduate Research Fellowships, PON Graduate Research Fellowships

Sreedhari Desai, a PON Graduate Research Fellow for the 2009-2010 academic year, was recently featured in an Op-Ed in the Boston Globe. Desai’s research examines the ways in which childhood cues can make businesses more charitable and individuals more honest. The full text of the article can be found here.

About Sreedhari Desai:
Sreedhari Desai is an … Learn More About This Program

PON Chair Robert Mnookin Featured on Nevada Public Radio

PON Staff   •  03/08/2011   •  Filed in Daily, Dispute Resolution

PON Chair Robert Mnookin discussed his book Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight on Nevada Public Radio on February 24th.

To listen to the interview, click here.

Professor Mnookin will be teaching a one-day Executive Education course based on Bargaining with the Devil on April 21. Click here to learn more about the … Learn More About This Program

Let Go of Lawsuits

PON Staff   •  01/10/2011   •  Filed in Daily, Dispute Resolution

Adapted from “Helping Your Adversary to Let Go,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Why is it that so many lawsuits aren’t settled until the parties reach the courthouse steps?

Sometimes the reason is strategic: each side may be waiting for the other to blink first. Dwight Golann, a legal scholar and veteran mediator, has identified another … Read Let Go of Lawsuits

Family Matters

PON Staff   •  08/09/2010   •  Filed in Dispute Resolution

Adapted from “All in the Family: Managing Business Disputes with Relatives,” by Frank E. A. Sander (professor, Harvard Law School) and Robert C. Bordone (professor, Harvard Law School), first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

What happens when family members go into business together? In a few lucky cases, harmony and success follow without effort. More often, … Read Family Matters

Resolving disputes with respect

PON Staff   •  06/07/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Dispute Resolution

Adapted from “Equal Time,” first published in the Negotiation newsletter.

Social scientists have long tried to identify the key drivers of success in resolving disputes. Several factors have been proposed: individualized contact that goes beyond the superficial, equal status among parties, commitment to a common goal, and institutional support. Studies have shown that when such conditions … Read Resolving disputes with respect

Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Federal Government: What’s up at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and elsewhere?

PON Staff   •  02/24/2010   •  Filed in Daily, Dispute Resolution, Events

The PON Dispute Resolution Forum and the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program Present:
Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Federal Government:
What’s up at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and elsewhere?
with
Deborah Osborne,
Group Manager, Dispute Resolution Service, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Thursday, March 4, 2010
8:00AM Breakfast
8:30AM Talk
Pound Hall, Room 335, Harvard Law School Campus

How are ADR principles applied … Learn More About This Program

Boston Globe Highlights Kenneth Feinberg’s Visit to Prof. Robert Bordone’s Dispute System Design Course

PON Staff   •  12/08/2009   •  Filed in Business Negotiations, Daily, Dispute Resolution, Mediation

On Tuesday, December 8, 2009, the Front Page of the Boston Globe featured an article on Kenneth Feinberg, President Obama’s “Pay Czar.” Feinberg was a guest lecturer at Professor Robert Bordone’s Dispute Systems Design Course.

To read the Boston Globe article online, click here.

For more information about the Dispute Systems Design Course and Prof. Bordone’s clinical … Learn More About This Program

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