Globalization necessitates that lawyers, leaders, managers, and employees be trained to efficiently, fairly, and cost-effectively reach agreement on complex issues that cut across political and cultural boundaries. Adversarial legal models with their reliance on parochial domestic forums for dispute intervention no longer adequately serve consumers facing transnational problems. Although alternative dispute resolution (ADR) training has evolved relatively quickly at graduate schools on both sides of the Atlantic over the last two decades, much of this development has been in isolation. The time is ripe for transnational and cross-disciplinary collaboration to explore alternative approaches to conflict resolution and the theory-to-practice challenges that emerge from such approaches.

This project has enabled three U.S. and three EU higher education institutions to: 1) collaborate in the development of international, cross-disciplinary ADR curricula and 2) initiate and sustain transatlantic student mobility and Web-based training to foster dispute resolution education and practice.

The partners assessed their collective dispute resolution curricula; conducted multiple teaching demonstrations at EC-FIPSE annual conferences and annual consortium meetings; offered state-of-the art intensive ADR training workshops for students; developed and implemented a student exchange program sustainable beyond the term of the grant period; developed a plan for faculty exchange beyond the grant period; developed and implemented a plan to utilize online negotiation exercises, and prepared an evaluation report on the pilot project.

The collaboration promoted mutual understanding between peoples of the European Union and the United States, improved the quality of human resource development for lawyers and other professionals, and encouraged sustainable innovation in graduate level education in a field central to global cooperation in the twenty-first century.

ONLINE REFERENCES: 

A Guide to ADR Links (Federal ADR Network)
   http://www.lawmemo.com/arb/res/adr.htm  

ADRWorld Library Search
   http://www.adrworld.com/database.asp  

American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution
   http://www.abanet.org/dispute/home.html  

Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution
   http://www.ombuds.org/center/default.htm  

Conflict Research Consortium: Core Literature Abstracts
   http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/abstract.htm  

CPR International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution
   http://www.cpradr.org/  

Cybersettle (An Online Dispute Resolution Provider)
   http://www.cybersettle.com/  

International Court of Arbitration, (International Chamber of Commerce)
   http://www.iccwbo.org/court/english/intro_court/introduction.asp  

London Court of International Arbitration
   http://www.lcia-arbitration.com/town/square/xvc24/  

James Coben
Project Director
U.S. Lead

Hamline University School
  of Law
1536 Hewitt Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55104
Tel: 651-523-2137
Fax: 651-523-2236

Giuseppe Burgio
European Lead

Università degli Studi di
  Roma "La Sapienza"
Via del Castro Laurenziano 9
Roma 00161
Italy
Tel: 011-39-06 49766.378
Fax: 011-39-06-49766.286

Ellen Deason
U.S. Partner

The Ohio State University
Moritz College of Law
55 West 12th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
Tel: 614-688-5794
Fax: 614-688-8422

Lela Love
U.S. Partner

Yeshiva University
Benjamin N. Cardozo School
  of Law
55 Fifth Avenue (12th
  Street)
New York, NY 10003-4391
Tel: 212-790-0365
Fax: 212-790-0256

Stephen Bensimon
European Partner

Institut catholique de Paris
21, rue d’Assas
Paris 75270
France
Tel: 011-33-01-44395289
Fax: 011-33-01-44395287

María Pilar Canedo Arrillaga
European Partner

Universidad de Duesto
Avda. Universidades, 24
Bilbao 48080
Spain
Tel: 011-34-94-4139144
Fax: 011-34-94-4139099