Public Justice: Toward a State Action Theory of Alternative Dispute Resolution

The Dispute Tree and the Legal Forest

“…Very quickly, support for ADR for both individual and organizational disputes grew among legal practitioners and policy makers alike (Westin & Feliu 1988, Ewing 1989, and federal law and policy began to endorse and incorporate various forms of ADR (Edelman & Suchman 1999). By the late 1990s, nearly half of all state and federal jurisdictions were operating ADR programs of some kind (Reuben 1996(Reuben , 1997.…”

When the “Haves” Hold Court: Speculations on the Organizational Internalization of Law

“…Indeed, the use of ADR has even gained substantial currency within the courts themselves. As early as 1980, 10 states and one federal district were experimenting with ADR, and by 1996, nearly half of all state and federal jurisdictions were operating ADR programs of some kind (Reuben 1996(Reuben , 1997.…”

Ways of Public-Law Dispute Resolution

“…Public law encompasses several spheres of public life, above all the construction of the state and the government, including public administration, that is, the expression of public interest as a total, general social interest in each sphere of public life. In other words, public law is associated with the realization of public authority (state power and local self-government) and is characterized by the influence of the imperative method of legal regulation, which is an original, constitutive feature of public law and determines the nature of public-legal relations 5 . Thus, public law is the set of legal institutions, rules and norms that underpins the functioning of a structured governmental and organizational system by which the purpose of securing public order and ultimately the realization and protection of human rights is achieved through the use of the imperative method 6 .…”

“…At the same time, even at level of the Council of Europe, there is an understanding that the process of "dismantling" the settlement of publiclaw disputes has many obstacles, among which one of the most significant is that states have not realized the potential utility and effectiveness of alternative dispute resolution between administrative bodies and private ones and therefore do not take sufficient steps to explain to the administrative authorities the benefits of alternative models for resolving such disputes, which may lead to unconventional, effective and rational 21 Richard C. Reuben (1997) settlement 24 . But in the current situation in Ukraine, it is almost impossible.…”