Workshop Program

Course materials. Readings will be drawn from the following sources, inter alia:

PAT CHEW, ed., THE CONFLICT AND CULTURE READER (2001)(available for purchase in book store).

William H. Simon, The Ideology of Advocacy: Procedural Justice and Professional Ethics, 1978 WISC. L.REV. 29.

MARY ANN GLENDON, A NATION UNDER LAWYERS (1994).

Robert M. Ackerman, Disputing Together: Conflict Resolution and Communitarianism (2002)(awaiting submission for publication).

Debra R. Hensler, The Real World of Tort Litigation, in EVERYDAY PRACTICES AND TROUBLE CASES (Austin Sarat et al., eds. 1998).

Richard Birke and Craig R. Fox, Psychological Principles in Negotiating Civil Settlements, 4 HARV. NEGOT. L.REV 1 (1999).

Classroom procedure. I anticipate using the above readings as the basis for classroom discussion during the first several weeks of the semester. Thereafter, we will begin to hear student presentations based on the work you are doing on your research papers. Before the end of January, each of you will recommend at least one reading that we will all prepare in anticipation of your presentation. A robust spirit of inquiry will be encouraged throughout our sessions; i.e., no one need be shy about chiming in.

Dispute Resolution Symposium. On Friday and Saturday, January 18 and 19, 2002, the Center for Dispute Resolution, together with the Agricultural Law Center and the Penn State Environmental Law Review, will present our First Annual Dispute Resolution Symposium. All students in the seminar are expected to attend at least one hour of the symposium, to which we will also devote some class discussion. The subject of the symposium is Resolving Disputes Arising Out of the Changing Face of Agriculture: Challenges Presented by Law, Science, and Public Perceptions. Students who do not have much interest in agriculture or environmental law should probably attend Friday's first session (from 8:45 to 10:30 a.m.) or last session (from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m.), which involve more general topics.

Attendance and class participation. Twenty percent of your grade will be based on classroom participation, exclusive of your paper presentation. Because this is a seminar, each class should be an active endeavor for all of us. You will be evaluated on the quantity and quality of your participation in class meetings. You may miss up to three hours of class (including the one hour symposium requirement) without penalty; thereafter, one point will be deducted from your final grade for each hour of class you miss in whole or in part. There will be no distinction between excused and unexcused absences. Three "free" hours of absence should be sufficient to cover illness, family emergencies, religious observance, job interviews, and the like except in the most extreme circumstances. If extreme circumstances do arise, however, please notify me, and we will discuss whether an accommodation is appropriate. We are a community of adult learners, and there is no need to be a martinet about these things as long as people act responsibly. In particular, I do not want people to place life and limb in danger to travel to school when road conditions are dangerous. We're here to study disputes, not create them.

Research papers. Sixty percent of your grade will be based on your research paper. You are encouraged to draw your papers from the topics outlined above, but any viable subject within the field of conflict resolution will be considered. Your research paper should involve frequent consultation with the instructor; it should not emerge full-blown for the first time at the end of the term. To that end, the following deadlines must be adhered to:

February 5, 2002:	Final approval of paper topics. To obtain final approval by February 5, it will be necessary for students to discuss proposed topics with the instructor prior to that time, and to submit a one-page typewritten proposal no later than January 25, 2002. E-mail attachments (in WordPerfect or Microsoft Word) are welcome, and are likely to prompt an e-mail reply from the instructor. The proposal should cite at least one reading (drawn from the sources listed above or from other sources) that you would like the rest of us to read in connection with your classroom presentation.
February 26, 2002:	Outline due. The outline must be thorough, covering all topics you anticipate addressing in the paper. It should be a minimum of two and a maximum of ten typewritten pages in length and should reflect the completion of substantial research.
March 26, 2002:	Draft of paper due. This should be a good (i.e., second or third) draft, not a rough draft. All of the essential elements of the final paper should be present.
April 26, 2002, 4:30 p.m.:	Final paper due.

Credit may be deducted from your grade if interim deadlines are missed or left unfulfilled (e.g., if only partial outlines or drafts are submitted). Moreover, your final product is likely to suffer if you deny yourself the opportunity for a critique of a more carefully constructed outline or draft. Students submitting proposals, outlines and drafts a few days prior to the deadlines are likely to have them returned with my comments that much earlier.

The final paper must be a minimum of twenty and a maximum of forty double-spaced, typewritten pages in length (in addition to footnotes or endnotes), using twelve-point type and one inch margins on all sides. Students should refer to the current Student Handbook for further requirements. I encourage papers that reach beyond doctrinal expositions to address topics from theoretical, policy-oriented, interdisciplinary or practice-oriented perspectives. I am looking for value added in the form of your own ideas and analysis, not simply a summary of extant case law, statutes, nostrums, or opinions previously voiced by others. Ideally, we will produce several papers fit for publication.

Paper presentations. Twenty percent of your grade will be based on the classroom presentation of your paper. I encourage imaginative presentations that employ a variety of media and engage us in discussion, rather than bland "talking head" summaries of your papers. Please let me know if you will require any special audio-visual equipment for your presentation. I anticipate that presentations will run from thirty to fifty minutes in length. We will work together to plan the timing and length of each presentation, along with the readings ultimately assigned. My expectations regarding the refinement of presentations will vary depending on their timing during the semester; as we move into April, I will expect more polished presentations.

Finally . . . I regard a seminar as a small community of learners who are intellectually curious about a subject and eager to learn from each other. While I have primary responsibility for organizing our inquiry, we are most likely to benefit if we can each take some responsibility for the success of the enterprise. I look forward to working with you throughout the semester and perhaps beyond.