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MEDIA ADVISORY: Bridging the Gap between the Rule of Law and Other Means of Resolving Disputes

National law experts to discuss important legal issue at MU

October 15th, 2010

Story Contact: Nathan Hurst, 573-882-6217, hurstn@missouri.edu

By Brad Fischer

WHAT: Officials from the Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution at the University of Missouri School of Law will welcome a panel of distinguished experts to a symposium, “Alternative Dispute Resolution and The Rule of Law: Making the Connection.”

The two ways of solving disputes are known as the Rule of Law and Alternative Dispute Resolution. The Rule of Law compels the use of formal rules to decide disputes, while Alternative Dispute Resolution calls for the resolution of disputes through non-legal processes like negotiation and mediation.

“The symposium will discuss how societies resolve conflict, and more specifically, whether they resolve conflict in ways that supports or undermines their rule of law regimes,” said Richard Reuben, a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution and professor at the MU School of Law. “It is of vital significance to developing democracies around the world, which are just beginning to establish their rule of law traditions, as well as in the United States, where the legitimacy of the courts, Congress and other agents of law are often called into question.”

The symposium is being hosted in cooperation with the Missouri Center for the Study of Conflict, Law & the Media, and the American Bar Association Section on Dispute Resolution.

WHO: Speakers include:

  • Richard Reuben, professor, University of Missouri
  • Rebecca Hollander-Blumoff, associate professor, Washington University
  • James Michel, former counsel, U.S. Aid for International Development

WHERE: Hulston Hall, University of Missouri campus

WHEN: 8:15 a.m.-3 p.m., Oct. 15

NOTE: This event is free and open to the public. The symposium can be viewed online at law.missouri.edu/csdr/symposium/rol/

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