Exploring
Alternative Dispute Resolution
All aspects of our lives depend on the strength of the relationships we build around us. Thus, understanding people’s behavior and anticipate potential conflict arising is existential for leading a productive and harmonious life. Since differences amongst humans are inevitable, competence at navigating conflictual situations is key.
Whilst lawyers, mediators, and other legal professionals are offering to serve as their client’s agents or intermediaries, we do not act as representatives in the interest of a third party. Our focus lies on exploring, building, and supervising tactically skilled strategies of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) with individuals.
Whether the scope is to break free from actual conflict or growing stronger general resilience, the how and why of steering through rough times is a highly personal choice, and so is the way out. Perhaps the most valuable gain of earning competence in resolving conflict is its longevity: Once acquired, no one can ever take it away.
EXPLORE THE
ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION UNIVERSE
Confide in Heritage
The long and substantial tradition of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) precedes modern litigation practice and contemporary judicial systems by centuries and has yielded a wide diversity of mechanisms to confront, handle, and remedy wrongs emerging between people. The heritage of mediation, arbitration, and negotiation proceedings undoubtedly occupy a prevalent position in ADR, acting as minimally-invasive methods in order to acquire confidential and inconspicuous solutions of conflictual interactions between natural and legal entities.
Despite its terminology, the broad variety of methods incorporated under the umbrella of ADR should not be regarded as a competition to existing legal systems, but rather as a complementary choice of long-established customs focusing on the dynamics of interpersonal conflict: Learning to anticipate and navigate the innumerable pitfalls of conflict dynamics and to personally incorporate the rich heritage of ADR as part of humanity’s collective cultural legacy, creates a sound foundation for current and future interactions with other people.
Reclaim Agency
Opting for a settlement of disputes outside the constraints of formal legal system through mechanisms of ADR acts as an effective and powerful instrument of relief for the lives of those directly or implicitly involved in a smoldering conflict. The conscious decision of reclaiming agency enables the affected parties to regain control over their lives, and to assume personal responsibility for their actions. Most importantly, building a personal conflict strategy should never interfere with existing or future representation by legal, and other professionals.
Simultaneously, adopting to sort things out as an empowered individual verifiably improves the quality of social justice on a global scale: Albeit democratic governments are set out to warrant equal justice under law, the architecture of modern judicial systems is engineered to primarily deliver judicial rulings on legal issues, and not to provide emotional redemption between estranged parties. Thus, the proper restoration or denouement of a relationship cannot be delegated to officers of a court, but remains an unimpeachable, personal obligation.
Promote Autonomy
On the long run, there might not exist a single more damaging position than the strenuous entanglement in an ongoing dispute. Nonetheless, notably parties freely disposing of resources to fight conflicts through to the bitter end wind up recognizing the excessive disproportionality between the rendered effort, and the scarcely impressing results. Apart from being a poor business decision in most cases, battling through legal procedures through overloaded courts is ill-suited to lastingly terminate the dynamics of an underlying conflict.
Since the development of law marks one of the most fundamental cultural achievements of human civilization, relieving institutions in doing one’s bit in reaching compromise where it seems justifiable, is perhaps the most coherent way of actively participating in the continuation of stability, solidarity, and peace. Promoting autonomy by adopting responsibility to sort out the different dimensions of a conflict not only benefits the party involved, but enforces the fundament on which our democratic judicial order is established on.
About us
Jonas Fischer is the co-author of “Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) – Negotiation, Mediation, Arbitration”. As a first of its kind, the book is building a comprehensive bridge between different traditions and legal systems, both of common law tradition American and British academia, as well as the respective methodology of Continental Europe. Apart from his involvement in independent research, and academic contributions, Jonas is empowering individuals with responsibility by exploring and tailoring sound and long-lasting coping strategies in order for them to navigate the dynamics of interpersonal conflict. Since all human relationships are heavily affected by the challenges of an increasingly digital economy, he is exploring ways of further designing the incorporation of cultural heritage, both in dispute resolution and law for the digital age. He does so through the community at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law, where is an Affiliate since 2020.
Previous to opening his private firm in 2014, he served at the legal department of the Federal Chancellery of Switzerland, and the Swiss Federal Court of Administration (Chamber V). After graduating law school and obtaining his PhD (Dr. iur.) with honors, examining gang criminality and group dynamics in a comparative criminal law analysis at the University of Bern, Switzerland, he was a visiting researcher at the University of Saint Louis (SLU) in Missouri, USA; the Eötvös Lorànd University (ELTE) in Budapest, Hungary; and an Extern at the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, USA. In addition to being a member of the Digital Society Initiative (DSI) at the University of Zurich, he is also an accredited member of both the Swiss Chamber of Commercial Mediation (SKWM), and the National Umbrella Association of Mediators (SDM-FSM).
Anne Mirjam Schneuwly is the co-author of the book “Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) –– Negotiation, Mediation, Arbitration.” She serves as a senior lecturer at the Legal Department of the University of Zurich and is currently completing her professorial thesis (Habilitation). Whenever the situation should warrant it, she is called upon as an additional independent expert to co-counsel in particularly complex, or sensitive cases.
Previous to joining Jonas in 2020, she graduated from law school with honors and obtained her PhD (Dr. iur.) on corporate social responsibility in law, business, and politics focusing on CSR-soft law in a global context. She is an Attorey at Law (Rechtsanwältin) and has completed a graduate business-law program (M.B.L) at the University of St. Gallen HSG. She served both at the Federal Court of Administration (Chamber IV), and the Supreme Court of Switzerland (Chamber I.). Furthermore, she held a postdoc-position at the Institute of Commercial Law at the University of Fribourg before assuming her current position at the Department for Commercial Law (University of Zurich), as well as a member of the Digital Society Initiative (DSI) at the University of Zurich.
The Book
Emphasizing on the rich tradition of Anglo-Saxon tradition in ADR, it is the first book of its kind, combining the academic literature developed around the Harvard-model of negotiation in common law, with the heritage of mediation and its systemic background in Continental Europe.
Contact
Dr. Jonas Fischer
fischer[at]expadr.com
Dr. Anne Mirjam Schneuwly
schneuwly[at]expadr.com