Dispute System Design: A Comparative Study of India, Israel, and California

Janet Martinez, Senior Lecturer in Law and Director of the Gould Negotiation and Mediation Program at Stanford Law School, Sheila Purcell, Director and Clinical Professor of the Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, Hagit Shaked-Gvili, and Justice Mohan Mehta, have authored a thoughtful research paper that compares alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in three very different legal systems.  The paper, entitled Dispute System Design: A Comparative Study of India, Israel, and California, 14 Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution 807 (2013); UC Hastings Research Paper No. 48, examines the varied strategies used to resolve similar disputes across the three legal systems.

Here is the abstract:

Alternative dispute resolution (“ADR”) is practiced around the world with myriad approaches, though not without common ground. In an increasingly interconnected world, the sharing of this knowledge and experience has become a natural and even necessary step in the evolution of ADR. This Article compares the experience of three diverse court systems at different stages of ADR program development in Delhi, India; Tel Aviv, Israel; and San Mateo County, California. The first section briefly describes the origins of each court-annexed mediation program. The second section sets out a framework for analysis and then compares the three systems according to these analytic elements. This Article concludes with some observations on cross-cutting themes and trends for the future.

The full text of the research paper may be downloaded without charge from the Social Science Research Network.