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Conflict Management E-Newsletter January 2001 #12 ------------------------------------------------------------------ A reminder that the instructions to unsubscribe are at the end of the newsletter. And that new subscriptions are always welcome. ------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Articles ADR Practice Beliefs: Finite and Infinite Peacemaking By Christina Merchant This is the full text of Christina Merchant's address to the Lawyers Engaged in ADR (LEADR) conference held in Sydney last year. A thoughtful presentation by a former Spidr President, Merchant suggests that by engaging in dialogue about our practice, beliefs and values, we can heighten our consciousness about how they drive our ADR practice. And that by becoming more conscious, we can then become more intentional and accountable for the manner in which we influence the conflict competence in our client systems. http://www.mediate.com/articles/merchant.cfm Wittgenstein and Mediation By Dr. Luis Miguel Diaz Conflict resolution takes place in a similar manner to the way Wittgenstein approaches philosophical problems, "they are solved, rather, by looking into the workings of our language, and that in such a way as to make us recognize those workings: in despite of an urge to misunderstand them. The problems are solved, not by giving new information, but by arranging what we have always known." http://www.mediate.com/articles/diaz.cfm Why Collaborative Law? By Chip Rose, J.D. The most profound development in the legal profession is the rapidly growing field collaborative law. Collaborative law refers to an approach to dispute resolution in which the parties are represented by counsel of their own choosing, however the attorneys are chosen because they belong to an identified group or association and have made a commitment to represent their clients in reaching a settlement without resorting to any form of litigation or any adjudicatory procedure. http://www.mediate.com/articles/rose.cfm ------------------------------------------------------------------ 2. The CPR Online Form Book CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution The CPR OnLine Form Book is a compilation of model procedures, clauses, forms, pledges, and commitments that have been developed by CPR and CPR members. The Form Book has been created to provide counsel with easy access in a high quality format to the wide array of CPR model forms. The Form Book will be updated and supplemented on an ongoing basis. It is available in a pdf format and can be accessed at http://www.cpradr.org/formbook/index.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ 3. The Society for Organizational Learning (SoL) SoL is a global learning community dedicated to building knowledge about fundamental institutional change. We aim to help build organizations worthy of people's fullest commitment, and are committed to any institution and individual that is committed to SoL's purpose and principles. To meet this goal, we discover, integrate, and implement theories and practices for the interdependent development of people and their institutions. http://www.solonline.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------ 4. Election News from Southern Africa EAST LONDON WARD WON ON TOSS OF A COIN The poll in an East London ward was decided on the toss of a coin yesterday after ANC and DA candidates tied in Tuesday's municipal elections. ANC candidate Laurence Jiba and DA candidate Pat Puchert received 2 266 votes each. The ANC, having the alphabetic advantage on the ballot paper, was allowed to call the toss, and its candidate Jiba took the seat when the R2 coin came down heads. The toss was carried out at the election results center in East London's city hall, under procedures laid down in the Municipal Structures Act. Business Day, 20001207 ZIMBABWE COURTS BARRED FROM CONTESTING ELECTION FRAUD The Zimbabwean government has published a law forbidding courts to invalidate the ruling Zanu-PF party's victories in 36 parliamentary constituencies that are facing legal challenges. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is challenging the results of the June elections in the 36 constituencies, where they say electoral fraud, violence and intimidation of voters compromised the returns. The new law says the election of candidates "shall not be rendered void in the interests of democracy, peace, security and stability, even if corrupt or illegal practices were committed". Sunday Independent, 20001210 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Quotes "Put a good employee in a bad system and the system always wins." W. Edwards Deming "People who are afraid of conflict also tend to fight inappropriately hard when they fight." Timothy Butler, Harvard Business School ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Book Review Fair Division: From Cake-Cutting to Dispute Resolution by Steven J. Brams, Alan D. Taylor In a democracy, the problem of fair division of goods is fundamental. It is, for example, what's lurking behind contemporary discussions of affirmative action, divorce law, and even of Medicare and Social Security. Its flip-side problem--burden-sharing--which is implicated in such issues as taxation and the draft, is likewise central. The authors, one a political scientist, the other a mathematician, start with an analysis of the well-known cake-cutting paradigm of "I cut, you choose" and gradually soup it up into a model capable of accommodating situations in which there are more than two parties, or more than one good. They emphasize division procedures that are not only proportional (that give each of n claimants a 1/n share of the good), but that also have the psychological property of being "envy-free"; that is, producing allocations in which each participant thinks (often wrongly, obviously) that he received the largest portion. Unlike most research on fairness in the social sciences and mathematics, this text is devoted solely to the analysis of constructive procedures for actually dividing things up and resolving disputes, even indivisible items such as the marital property in a divorce or sovereignty in an international dispute. http://www.amazon.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Feedback and Subscriptions welcome If you have any suggestions, tips, or other comments, send an e-mail to johnford@mediate.com. I welcome new subscriptions. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Conflict Management E-Newsletter Published by John Ford and Associates http://www.mediate.com/johnford To subscribe and unsubscribe Send a blank email to: conflictmanagement-subscribe@egroups.com conflictmanagement-unsubscribe@egroups.com To review previous newsletters on the web: http://www.egroups.com/messages/conflictmanagement ---------------------------------------------------------------------- |