Creating a Culture of Conflict Resolution: The Maryland Example

Abstract

Professor Deborah Thompson Eisenberg delivered this keynote address at a “Changing Perspectives” conference hosted by the Institute for the Foundations of Law at the University of Graz, Austria in June 2018. We live in times of intense social conflict and political polarization. Some fear that we can no longer talk to each other across various divides or resolve our conflicts peacefully. Does this high conflict culture portend dangerous times ahead for our communities, courts and democracy itself? Using the example of the Maryland Judiciary’s development of dispute resolution processes in courts and communities, Professor Eisenberg describes the four “superpowers” needed to transform a culture of conflict into a culture of conflict resolution: 1) the power of the rule of law; 2) the power of dispute resolution alternatives; 3) the power of community conflict resolution and 4) the power of education.

Keywords: conflict resolution, cultural transformation, ADR, alternative dispute resolution, Maryland courts, MACRO, mediation, collaborative law, settlement