Spring 2025 Byse Workshop – Alternative Dispute Resolution: Historical Roots, Political Agendas and Philosophical Ideas

Join the HLS Spring 2025 Byse Workshop on Alternative Dispute Resolution: Historical Roots, Political Agendas, and Philosophical Ideas. Together, we will examine some of the most paradigmatic methods of dispute resolution (e.g., negotiation, mediation, etc.), delving into their underlying philosophical, historical, economic, and political foundations and implications.

This non-credit workshop is open to all members of the Harvard community without any required registration. Attending all sessions is encouraged but not mandatory. No prior knowledge is required. Feel free to join all or any of the sessions.

Course Schedule

Part I – Setting the stage: ADR intellectual roots and grammar

1.     Feb. 6 (Thu) – Intellectual roots of ADR

Part II – Opening ADR’s Multiple Doors

2.     Feb. 13 (Thu) – Negotiation: From integration to value creation and self-governance.

3.     Feb. 20 (Thu) – Mediation: The four trajectories of mediation (e.g., facilitative, evaluative, transformative, and narrative mediation).

4.     Feb. 27 (Thu) – Restorative Justice: From seeing conflicts as property to scaling down the state.

5.     Mar. 6 (Thu) – Arbitration: From protecting investment and property rights to global governance.

6.     Mar. 27 (Thu) – Dispute System Design and Transitional Justice: From scaling up ADR in organizations and society to consultancy of conflict management.

Part III – Looking Forward: The Death or Resuscitation of ADR?

7.     Apr. 3 (Thu) – Future trends of ADR: The three additions to the ADR multidoor house: online dispute resolution, communicational ethics, and informal justice.

Note: Readings are available on Canvas and this link.