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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A Negotiation Impasse Between England and France Leads to Skirmish Over Scallops

PON Staff   •  09/15/2022   •  Filed in Dispute Resolution

negotiation impasse

When parties are fighting for scarce resources, disputes can become intense. Negotiation is often the answer, but agreements may need to be continually revisited to keep the peace, and a negotiation impasse can result in renewed conflict. That’s the main takeaway from the dispute that erupted in the English Channel between French and British fishermen … Learn More About This Program

Managing Difficult Negotiations: Lessons from the 2015-2017 Illinois Budget Impasse

Katie Shonk   •  08/08/2022   •  Filed in Dispute Resolution

Managing Difficult Negotiations: Lessons from the 2015-2017 Illinois Budget Impasse

On July 6, 2017, the state of Illinois finally resolved a 793-day budget impasse, the longest such impasse in U.S. history. The economically devastating stalemate between Republican then-governor Bruce Rauner and the Democratic-controlled state legislature, triggered by hardball negotiation tactics, offers lessons to negotiators managing difficult negotiations.
An Agenda and a Condition
As Illinois politicians approached negotiations … Learn More About This Program

How Serious is Your Agent’s Conflict of Interest?

PON Staff   •  04/14/2022   •  Filed in Dispute Resolution

conflict of interest

The television industry has undergone seismic changes in recent decades, first with cable TV joining broadcast TV, followed by the rise of digital streaming companies such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. In today’s “peak TV” era, companies are producing hundreds of shows to fill viewers’ binge-watching appetites. In some ways, it’s a golden age … Learn More About This Program

Dear Negotiation Coach: Determining the Right Compensation Offer After a Disaster

PON Staff   •  12/21/2021   •  Filed in Dispute Resolution

compensation offer

In the aftermath of a large-scale catastrophe or disaster in the United States—such as 9/11, the opioid epidemic, and mass shootings—the courts can be ill-equipped to take on the complex task of negotiating a compensation offer for large numbers of claimants. Instead, “special masters” are often assigned to create and administer victim-compensation programs, a job … Learn More About This Program

Dear Negotiation Coach: How Can You Create a Fair Dispute Process?

PON Staff   •  08/31/2021   •  Filed in Dispute Resolution

dispute process

Dispute resolution can sometimes take years and lead to costly litigation if opposing sides can’t reach a settlement. The dispute process can become frustrating when you try to be fair and reach efficient settlements, but your counterpart fails to reciprocate. What can you do in a situation where the other party is unreasonable?

Rest assured, you aren’t … Learn More About This Program

When Hard-Bargaining Isn’t Enough

Katie Shonk   •  06/28/2021   •  Filed in Dispute Resolution

hard bargaining

Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Salvator Mundi has long been shrouded in mystery. The 16th-century portrait of Jesus Christ periodically disappeared over hundreds of years before being mistakenly sold at auction as another artist’s work for just £45 in 1958. In 2005, art dealers purchased the damaged painting for approximately $10,000 in an estate auction. After … Read When Hard-Bargaining Isn’t Enough

Methods of Dispute Resolution: Building Trust in Online Mediation

Katie Shonk   •  04/05/2021   •  Filed in Dispute Resolution

methods of dispute resolution

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, mediators and other negotiation practitioners often insisted on meeting in person, convinced that online methods of dispute resolution lack “the human touch”—the warmth, energy, body language, and other subtle factors that build essential ingredients in conflict resolution, including trust, empathy, and rapport.

But when lockdowns and social-distancing restrictions took hold in the … Learn More About This Program

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