30 Years Behind and the Road Ahead for the Widespread Use of Mediation

Professor Lela P. Love, Director of the Kukin Program for Conflict Resolution and Director of the Cardozo Mediation Clinic at Yeshiva University – Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and Ellen A. Waldman, Professor of Law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, have published “The Hopes and Fears of All the Years: 30 Years Behind and the Road Ahead for the Widespread Use of Mediation,” Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, Vol. 31, No. 2, 2016; Cardozo Legal Studies Research Paper No. 497. In their journal article, the authors examine the role of mediation in the law over the past three decades.

Here is the abstract:

Looking through the windshield in 1985, the dispute resolution community was enthusiastic about mediation’s promise: the promise of a radically different paradigm premised on party-driven resolution and collaborative decision-making. Peering ahead, mediation’s pioneers anticipated a quiet revolution in conflict management toward more therapeutic and democratic processes. What do events in the last three decades tell us about the high and low points — the successes and failures — in the journey of that endeavor? Looking forward, how might we best align reality with our highest aspirations and avoid the disappointing troughs we encountered in those past decades? This article addresses those questions.

This and other scholarly works written by Professors Love and Waldman may be downloaded free of charge from the Social Science Research Network.

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