From Legal Disputes to Conflict Resolution and Human Problem Solving: Legal Dispute Resolution in a Multidisciplinary Context

Although this essay traces my own intellectual journey as a teacher and scholar of alternative dispute resolution, it describes as well the evolution of the field of dispute resolution (rooted in legal studies) to the now broader field of conflict resolution that encompasses the study of disputes and conflicts, not only when they come to law in legal disputes, but in all forms of human conflict, including the interpersonal, domestic, and international. While my work began in legal disputing, it quickly moved to the more interdisciplinary study of conflict resolution when I sought better solutions to human problems than those afforded by courts or unprincipled compromises in conventional negotiation processes