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Welcome to my Blog!



The focus of this blog is to comment and critique on hot topics and debates in the area of conflict resolution.   

 The title of the blog, The Legal Artichoke, represents the way in which I would like to break down and analyze issues. For one, I am a law student, and this blog is being initiated as part of a course I am taking on alternative dispute resolution. Hence, law will play a role in analyzing conflicts. But issues, like artichokes, have many leaves and layers which must be pulled away before the heart of the matter can be exposed. Only then, when we can understand more about what the problem truly is, can we consider possible solutions, only one of which may be to take the matter to the courtroom.

As for readers, I hope to present some insightful perspectives, and from time to time take a controversial stance which might generate some comments and feedback. Otherwise, I hope I at least add a little “food for thought” to your day!  

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Scratte v Scrat: Mediation

For a possible solution to this issue, I would propose to both Scrat and Scratte that they should consider mediation. It is a reasonable first step to attempt to avoid the cost, time, stress, and win-lose outcome of litigation. Mediation is a voluntary process, so Scrat and Scratte would have to agree to it, as well as agree to a mediator. The mediator will not make their decisions for them, but will assist in the negotiation process by directing and managing the negotiation. Whether Scrat and Scratte negotiate for themselves or they have representatives, someone will be negotiating on behalf of each of them. T he outcome will not be binding unless the two decide to put any negotiated outcomes into a signed contract. This allows for a lot of flexibility, but will assist in controlling the parties' emotions by providing some ground rules, improving the quality and quantity of communication, and changing repetitive negative behaviour such as the behaviour we have observe...
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Legal Culture, Civility in Law, and Mediation: Considering Joseph Groia

 It seems to me that the practice of law is changing. Perhaps it is my anthropological and social justice interest which places a more contextual spin on things, but I think it is also illustrated by the more recent move towards civility by bodies such as the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) and the Advocates' Society.   LSUC reports that complaints about incivility, behaving dishonerably, and misleading the court made up 35% of complaints in 2008, up from 11% in 2004 (Philip Slayton, “There can be too much civility”, Canadian Lawyer (May 2010) online: Canadian Lawyer < http:// www.canadianlawyermag.com/There-can-be-too-much-civility.html>).  Additionally, there has been a push for more ethics and professionalism to be taught in law schools, which includes teaching civility. And finally, my optional upper year ethics course had two lectures dedicated to forms of zealous advocacy so that we could examine where to draw the line in how you promote your case as a...
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Scratte v Scrat: Facts and Issues

I wanted to make my first post a little more general before we get into some more specific disputes, and so I would like to analyze the positions of Scrat and Scratte, two characters you may recall from the Ice Age movies. This way we can go over some of the concepts You may recall Scrat from these movies. He is a grey squirrel squirrel with a very strong attachment to a certain Acorn which he previously found and has worked very hard to secure ownership over. If you need a refresher, see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbsGWNXZ51I&feature=related . Enter Scratte, a beautiful female red squirrel, whom, as it turns out, is also a flying squirrel. In Ice Age 3, she also finds the same Acorn and believes it to be hers. For an overview of the facts, please see the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FihSyAikRY&feature=related As you can see, there is definitely a dispute here over the possession and use of the Acorn in question. Lets begin by a ...
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