The U.S. judicial system is not merely a system of trials but a system of alternative means to resolution. Highlighting dispute resolution scholarship emphasizes the diverse ways of thinking available for resolving conflicts beyond traditional trials. In their first volume, Discussions in Dispute Resolution: The Foundational Articles (OUP 2021), the authors celebrated the field's foundational writings and reflected on what makes those pieces so significant. In this second volume, Discussions in Dispute Resolution: The Coming of Age (2000-2009), they focus on the 16 most significant and influential articles on U.S. dispute resolution during its golden age of extraordinary growth. These articles shaped legal thinking about how the judicial system outsources the resolution of civil claims.
The heart of the book consists of short excerpts from these significant pieces, distilling them to their core ideas: the concepts, phrases, or findings that made them noteworthy. Four leading dispute resolution scholars (sometimes including the original author) then engage with different aspects of the articles' ideas, recognizing their prescience and critiquing them where appropriate to answer the question: Why is this a significant work in the field?
By highlighting these influential works, the authors bring a fresh perspective, challenge them with the benefit of hindsight, engage with themes discussed in the first volume (such as disputant autonomy, access to justice, equal justice, changing views of legal and legalistic processes, and systemic impacts on processes and disputants), and compare the challenges of this era to those of the founding era.
