In conciliation there is a stir With fancy theories everywhere Needing trust? Try oxytocin If bias persists increase the dose in If your clients still won’t budge We’re told they do require a Nudge A question here, a reframe there - We’re told to get up off our chair Standing up will free the brain And shift the mind and dull the pain That said, don’t forget testosterone Which comes from preening on your own Serotonin is for client and liar Warm water soothes the insula And b

ANZELA Conference, Auckland, 28-30 September 2016 Laurence Boulle Thomas More Law School, ACU, Sydney Laurence.Boulle@acu.edu.au Draft Only – Not for Citation. References outstanding. Prologue A retired New Zealand teacher became a successful conflict resolver and with his earnings bought a hobby farm where he kept wool-bearing sheep. When it came to shearing season he consulted the internet and phoned a large shearing company. ‘Could he have his sheep sheared?’ he requested.

Fourth Asian Mediation Association Conference Beijing, 20-21 October 2016 Values in Mediation Party autonomy and self-determination Direct participation Non-adversarial ethos Needs and interests focus Focus on common interests, mutual gains Based on local norms Relational approach Future focus Individualised nature Counter-Values in Mediation ‘There are limits to private ordering…’ Limited formality and ritual Power factors can be determinative Reduced transparency and accoun

We’re dedicated teechers, we learn ‘em good each day They construe us just like data, it causes us dismay Our profession strives for status, we self-medicate with wine Anzela is our saviour – its conference sublime! The world seems now so vexing, complexity prevails, Performance indicators all round, increasing our travails Governments more demanding, parents routinely complain Students are revolting and budget pressures drain They don’t want Samuel Becket – causes morale to

Global trends in mediation keep it up with modern creeds It out trumps litigation, responds to social needs Goals, objectives, values drive the mediation quest Med-arb, arb-med, arb-med-arb, it’s a resolution fest East and west, cross-cultural norms, acronyms fly fast, CCPIT, DDR and ODR at last. Where winds of change are blowing, when harmony’s at bay Mediators find solace within the AMA When mediators are jaded and scholars start to stray We gain fine inspiration in the hal

Conferment of First ADRA Fellowships to Anne Ardagh and Laurence Boulle, June 2015, Sydney One score and seven years ago ADRA’s age began Imbued with resolution, with foresight and with elan, Access to Justice was the cry, so crass was litigation, It could be solved, we then were told, through lawyer education. Excitement burned for win-win in that citrus dispute But what of this small challenge: each sister craves all the fruit. Despite doubters ADRA’s crew embarked buoyantl

Presentation at National Mediation Conference, 14 September 2016 We see them here we see them there, the numbers they are everywhere What’s the figure, what’s the score? Productivity must be more. Numbers are our talisman, money, mammon’s holy bread Dollars dazzle, zeros add, problem is they induce dread Mediators bemoan innocence lost along the way ‘Can’t we go back 30 years when idealism held sway?’ Mediation should be voluntary they emphatically insist, And if mediators ar

*Notes for paper presented at New Zealand Law Society Workshop, 30 September 2016. Not for referencing without author’s permission. These notes focus on two related topics. The first concerns traditional features and dynamics of those negotiations which are characterised as positional or distributive or competitive in nature – here referred to as positional bargaining - as opposed to interest-based, problem-solving or mutual gains negotiation. The second is on how mediators m

Hɔrs + Wɔtər = Drɪŋk? Managing the Mandatory in Mediation Paper presented at the NSW Workers Compensation Commission Conference 25 August 2016 Introduction In Subway Systems Australian v Ireland (No 2) [2013] VSC 693 (13 December 2013) Justice Croft of the Victoria Supreme Court said [18]: The old adage is that you can take a horse to water but not make it drink. This is, however, more likely true of unstructured negotiations than mediation. In the former only narrow self-int