Redesigning Dispute Systems

Catalog description

Lawyers are often called upon to apply their creative skills to help design systems (comprised of one or more processes) for preventing, managing, and resolving conflicts. Examples span many domains: 1. what combination of international and domestic processes would facilitate cross-border e-commerce and protect consumers? Who should decide--consumer protection agencies? Merchants? Consumers? 2. a corporate general counsel and the director of human resources are tasked by senior management with proposing ways to decrease the number of employee disputes and reduce turnover; 3. in the era of the COVID pandemic, courts have been called upon to continue service to the public using online resources, yet maintain due process and just outcomes; 4. San Francisco Human Rights Commission has formed an African American Reparations Advisory Committee to make recommendations to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In each example, a lawyer, businessperson, nonprofit manager, or public official (working alone or with others) must address not just a single dispute but a stream of disputes over time. Lawyers often lead the design, redesign and implementation of these conflict resolution systems. Increasingly these systems utilize technology to improve efficiency, accessibility, and transparency for disputants. In this class we will apply an analytic framework (including stakeholder assessment and conflict resolution process options) to a series of case studies and use simulations to understand different kinds of dispute systems. We will also examine the growing use of online dispute resolution (ODR), the new challenges it poses to neutrals and system designers, and evolving best practices for the use of technology in dispute system design. Special Instructions: Grades will be based on class participation and Option 1 (section 01) a series of weekly short written assignments plus a…