With religious symbols being installed at the new 9/11 Memorial and Museum, conflict was bound to arise. [For more on this story, you can Google it or check out this article]. The Mayor of NYC pointed out that religion comforted many during 9/11, and his opposition believes it's inappropriate mingling of church and state. I'm not looking to debate religion and politics, but…

Sometimes it is easy to have tunnel-vision when it comes to conflict resolution curriculum. Every student, professor, practitioner, etc. has very different concepts of how they want to focus their skills. For example, I am currently a law student; therefore, my ADR coursework has been geared toward supplementing my legal skills - improving interpersonal skills, negotiation techniques, communication, transparency, etc. However, many of my other classmates or professors have focus on improving…

This week I watched an interesting TED talk about extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. And it made me wonder if this could help conflict resolution in businesses. [As a side note, TED is an outlet that posts talks on a variety of topics. I have yet to find one that isn't incredibly interesting and practical. If you haven't checked it out, you should - www.ted.com]. I've posted the talk below, and I highly recommend you watch at least the first…

OK, I love art. I think it should be conserved, supported, used, observed, etc. So when stories pop up about museums deaccessioning pieces (i.e. selling off pieces in their collections), it's concerning. What if the object disappears into a private collection never to be seen again? What if the buyer sticks it in storage? Loses it? Rips it? Lets dust settle into the centuries-old paint? Obviously, the chances of this happening are slim, but I tend to be one of those worse-case-scenario type…

So I was catching up on disputes involving museums and I came across a slightly humorous story. In short, the American Museum of Natural History in NY sued American Airlines. Why? Because the airline allegedly destroyed barrels of "rare specimens" of fish that were shipped as luggage instead of cargo. The museum brought suit to recover the costs of collecting and transporting…

This week I thought I would knock out two birds with one stone and use "The No Asshole Rule" material for the ADR Book Club as my blog subject matter.

So far, we have only discussed Chapters 1-2, but it's a very book with very poignant ideas. So far the author, Robert Sutton, has introduced us to his test for spotting an ***hole: (1) Does the target feel oppressed/belittled after talking with the alleged ***hole and (2) Does the alleged ***hole aim his aggression at people…

I recently came across an news article talking about real estate agents who were certified as negotiation experts. Some further research led me to their program's website, which detailed topics covered in 2-5 day seminars for real estate agents. (Disclaimer: I have no connection to the program and…

There has been recent cultural property disputes where countries bring actions against museums (i.e. the Getty Museum, the Met, etc.) claiming the museums should return particular items to the country of origin. How courts decide these issues has a lingering effect on loan agreements between countries and museums.

One current example is seen Russia and the Met Museum (see the news article…

Hello all,

I'm currently a law student at Creighton and also pursuing the M.S. in Negotiation and Dispute Resolution through the Werner Institute. This summer I will be blogging about new issues and ideas in the ADR field. I'm very interested in art and art history, so many of my posts will probably be slanted toward those subjects.

Feel free to provide comments and feedback (because I'm sure everyone is tethered to their computers during the beautiful summer…