NCJ Number
113151
Date Published
1988
Length
61 pages
Annotation
This report summarizes and analyzes the issues raised at a 1987 workshop on identifying and measuring quality in dispute resolution processes and outcomes.
Abstract
The workshop was cosponsored by the Disputes Processing Research Program at the University of Wisconsin's Institute for Legal Studies in Madison and by the National Institute for Dispute Resolution. The report discusses major theories of justice and considers the issue of whether alternative dispute resolution should measure itself against the baseline of adjudication or against the baseline of unmediated negotiation. It also analyzes the following quality criteria suggested by the workshop participants: (1) participant satisfaction; (2) the furthering of social justice; (3) the transformation of the parties through empowerment; and (4) the transformation of the parties through reconciliation. The analysis concludes that only participant satisfaction is clearly inadequate as a measure of justice and that underlying each of the other proposals in a general view of the good life. Thus, debate among the proposals is no more likely to come to closure than is debate about what constitutes the good life. Figure, footnotes, and 69 references.