The new urban governance requires not only tools (like tax incentives and contracts for privatizing government functions), but also new processes to carry the tools into effect, including deliberation and dialogue for making policy and dispute resolution (like negotiation, mediation, and...

Community mediation programs could be viewed simply as community-based alternatives to court-based adjudicatory systems. Alternatively, they provide broader services and offer deeper benefits as "community-owned" programs that foster citizen participation and democratic governance. However,...

Elinor Ostrom's work on Institutional Analysis and Design (IAD) provides a rigorous framework for examining dispute system design (DSD). It has broad potential application in this emerging field of law. This essay briefly examines the IAD framework and illustrates its application to DSD.

One of the problem-making tendencies in environmental policymaking has been an incremental approach to regulation and control. Either because the full dimensions of an environmental problem are not perceived or because political resistance compels step-by-step action, environmental controls tend...