I'm glad to hear that you are working with this group. There are certainly some good things going on at CRC.

While your on the subject, I recommend a book my anthropologist Laura Nader, "The Life of the Law." I found out about her when she came to Earlham to speak (I think it was last year). I did not hear her speak, but I did pick up a copy of the book at the Earlham Bookstore. As someone who is in the business of helping people resolve conflict (by nominally combative means), I got a lot out of it.

One of the themes she explores is the beneficial aspects of conflict in society. She also discusses the recent movement in the law towards requiring litigants to attempt to mediate their disputes before coming to a trial. Mediation, much like conflict resolution, focuses on taking the parties through a process where needs and desires are prioritized, and the parties work through a facilitator to find a resolution that provides a reasonable compromise.

In her observations, she notes that litigation and conflict between parties is frequently between parties of unequal power: a large corporation and an individual harmed by the corporation somehow, an employer and an employee, a government and a citizen, even between spouses there is often great differences in thier relative power. Through her analysis, what emerges is the realization that "compromise" between two unequally matched parties provides a forum for the powerful to use their power. In her words, mediation becomes a game of "how would you like to loose" for the weaker party.

Contrast that to the courtroom where the parties are effectively equal by virtue of the litigation system: the jury can go either way, and the powerful have no means to force the results to their favor. This factor is why large companies hate lawsuits: the suddenly are held to account by a mere individual. think of the plaintif in Houston who recently won a huge award from a drug maker.

Over the course of the many formal mediations I have been through, I have found this observation to ring true. Mediation attempts to make both parties a "winner." Ms. Nader's book points out that sometimes society benefits from having someone forced to be the loser.

If you're interested, I'll let you borrow my copy . . . .