Dispute Resolution Systems Design


Although dispute systems design was originally developed for labor-management conflicts, it is now widely used at the national level for democratization and other post-conflict peacebuilding efforts. Peter Woodrow describes several such efforts below, as do several other Beyond Intractability participants.

Peter Woodrow discusses how to design dispute resolution systems that are culturally appropriate.

Peter Woodrow discusses his work designing a dispute resolution system for East Timor land tenure conflicts.

Peter Woodrow describes a Sri Lankan approach to mediation.

Ray Shonholtz talks about democracy as a conflict management system.

Tamra d'Estrée illustrates how different processes are more appropriate at different phases of a conflict and accomplish different goals. Sometimes they are used sequentially; sometimes simultaneously for best results.

  Kevin Avruch advocates a conflict resolution strategy that combines endogenous approaches and the insight of third party intervenors.

Guy Burgess, Co-Director of the University of Colorado Conflict Research Consortium and the Beyond Intractability Project, argues that the conflict resolution field needs to think bigger and individual practitioners would improve their work through greater coordination.

Civil rights mediator Nancy Ferrell always aims to make systemic changes.

Mediator Will Reed describes how his goal is to teach disputants how to solve their own problems in the future and to set up systems to enable them to do that which will last a long time.

Civil rights mediator Nancy Ferrell discusses the outcome of a major intervention at a university that was having racial problems among its students.