The Harvard Negotiation Law Review
presented a 2012 Symposium:
Does ADR Work?
Evaluating the Effectiveness
of Alternative Dispute Resolution
Saturday, February 25th
Keynote Address by Carrie Menkel-Meadow
A.B. Chettle, Jr. Professor of Dispute Resolution and Civil Procedure, Georgetown University Law Center, and Chancellor’s Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law
Keynote Video (link)
Panel 1
Co-optation of ADR: Has It Become “Cheap Justice”?
Is ADR a form of “cheap justice”? This panel looked into the complicated balancing act between fairness, public accountability, and cost, and whether the parties’ interests are appropriate addressed.
Cathy Costantino, Georgetown University Law Center and George Washington University Law School.
Howard Gadlin, National Institutes of Health
Lawrence Susskind, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rory Van Loo, Harvard Law School
Nancy Welsh, Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson School of Law
Panel 1 Video (link)
Panel 2
ADR in the Criminal Justice System
ADR features prominently in the criminal justice system in the form of negotiation (plea bargaining) and increasingly through the use of practices and institutions such as restorative circles, victim-offender mediation and problem solving courts. This panel examined the appropriateness of these methods of ADR, how well they are working, and how they can be optimized to serve society’s interest.
Julian Adler, Red Hook Community Justice Center
Eric Blumenson, Suffolk University Law School
David Breen, Boston University School of Law
Christopher Dearborn, Suffolk University Law School
Michael Sullivan, Ashcroft Group and Former U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts
Panel 2 Video (link)
Panel 3
Quantitative and Qualitative Methods of Evaluating ADR
In order to determine whether ADR “works,” there must be a way to measure its effectiveness. But can the effectiveness of ADR be evaluated? And are quantitative or qualitative measures the appropriate method of evaluation?
Robert Bordone, Harvard Law School
Dwight Golann, Suffolk University Law School
D. James Greiner, Harvard Law School
Janet Martinez, Stanford Law School
Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Georgetown University Law Center,
University of California, Irvine School of Law
Panel 3 Video (link)
Sponsored by the Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy Fund, the Program of Negotiation at Harvard Law School, and the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program