Dispute Systems Design
Lawyers are often called upon to help design systems for managing and resolving conflicts that support or supplant existing legal structures. The crisis of September 11 led Congress to pass a law creating the September 11 Fund; a California Supreme Court challenge to its method of resolving health care disputes led Kaiser Permanente to reform its arbitration system; years of atrocities committed against the people of South Africa, Guatemala and many other countries led to the formation of truth commissions. Lawyers helped to structure these and many other conflict resolution systems. We'll use a case study model to survey different kinds of conflict prevention, management and resolution systems, and examine different factors in their design.