Why take ADR courses?
It has been over 30 years since the April, 1976 “Pound Conference” brought together scholars, judges, lawyers, and other dispute resolution professionals to confront the causes of popular dissatisfaction with justice in America’s court systems. In the quarter century since that historic conference, heralded by many as the beginning of the modern alternative dispute resolution (ADR) era, there has been a dramatic expansion in the use of ADR throughout the world. Courts now regularly order mediation, arbitration, or other dispute resolution processes in a wide range of cases. Local, state, and federal agencies are mandated to design and implement dispute resolution mechanisms to manage public conflict. In the private sector, corporations increasingly put a premium on preventive dispute resolution. Elementary and secondary school educators have turned to peer mediation as one potential solution to the epidemic of violence plaguing our nation’s public schools. The restorative justice movem
