Robert H. Mnookin

Disputing through Agents: Cooperation and Conflict between Lawyers in Litigation

Do lawyers facilitate dispute resolution or do they instead exacerbate conflict and pose a barrier to the efficient resolution of disputes? A distinctive characteristic of our formal mechanisms of conflict resolution is that clients carry on their disputes through lawyers. Yet, at a time when the role of lawyers in dispute resolution has captured not only public but political attention,3 social scientists have remained largely uninterested in

Enforcing divorce settlements: evidence from child support compliance and award modifications.

This paper uses an implicit contracting framework to understand the dynamic nature of divorce settlements and to analyze the determinants of noncompliance with child support awards. In addition to the standard economic variables that affect the noncustodial parent’s (NCP’s) ability to pay child support, our approach focuses on factors that may affect the NCP’s desire to pay, such as the ongoing relationship between the two parents and between the NCP and the children. We also examine the “state-contingent” nature of child support payments and explore the factors that lead to modifications in child support agreements. Using a longitudinal data set collected by the Stanford Child Custody Project, the empirical analysis provides documentation that compliance by noncustodial fathers can vary substantially from month to month. In addition, we find that even within a short period after divorce, a substantial minority of parents agree to make informal modifications to their divorce settlement in response to changes in economic circumstances and in custodial arrangements

Does Disputing Through Agents Enhance Cooperation? Experimental Evidence

A distinctive characteristic of our mechanisms for conflict resolution is that litigation is carried out by agents chosen by disputing principals. Does the fact that clients choose lawyers to carry on their disputes facilitate dispute resolution or instead exacerbate conflict? The dominant contemporary view is that the involvement of lawyers magnifies the contentiousness of litigation and wastes social resources, prolonging and escalating the conflict in ways that enrich the legal profession but not the clients. But in a recent article, Ronald Gilson and Robert Mnookin suggest another possibility: by choosing lawyers with reputations for cooperation, clients may commit to cooperative litigation in circumstances where the clients themselves would not otherwise trust each other. Using the methodology of experimental economics, this article presents a test of their idea that, by choosing cooperative agents under well‐specified procedures, principals may sustain more cooperation than they could on their own. Our experimental findings are consistent with the Gilson‐Mnookin hypothesis.

The Information Value of Demand Equations and Predictions

HE objective of conventional demand theory is to describe, for some commodity i, i =1 . . .1, n the quantity bought, qi, as a function of income, In, and prices, pi, . . . , pn. Income, m, is identified with total expenditure z piqi. If we succeed in performing this task, the value shares, wi = piqi in, are described as well-defined functions of vi and the ps. Each of these shares should be non-negative; their sum should be 1. We shall never succeed in performing this task completely, since there will be unexplained residuals in all demand equations. An obvious question then is: If our success is not 100 per cent, how great is it? How great is the success if we compare it with naive methods, such as no-change extrapolation, which do not use any sophisticated demand theory at all? Also, it should be remembered that the usefulness of demand equations is frequently limited by imperfect forecasts of income and price changes. The only thing which classical demand theory has to say about these variables is that it considers them to be exogenous. So there is the additional question: What remains of the value of a demand equation when imperfect exogenous estimates are substituted? The purpose of this article is to present a measure, based on information theory,

Beyond Kiddie Libbers and Child Savers

Abstract The law of childhood is complex, but in general, children have less liberty than adults and are often held less accountable. The traditional allocation ‐ with parents having the primary power to decide ‐ is now being questioned, both from the perspective of child liberators and from the perspective of child savers. Using examples relating to a) custody disputes; b) when, if ever, life sustaining treatment for severely handicapped newborns should be discontinued; c) medical experimentation on children; and d) the institutionalization of disturbed or handicapped children, this article suggests that in many critical areas what is best for an individual child or for children in general is usually indeterminate or speculative, and is not demonstrable by scientific proof, but instead is fundamentally a matter of values. This article points out three ways psychologists can help move policy debates concerning childrens rights. First, systematic research in psychology. Second, clinical psychologists can ...

Ethnic conflicts: Flemings & Walloons, Palestinians & Israelis

jecting to the presence of any francophone curriculum within a university situated in Dutch-speaking Flanders, the Belgian government negotiated a deal in 1968 that split the 1⁄2ve-hundred-year-old Catholic University of Leuven into two institutions. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U. Leuven) remained in the old college town and became an entirely Dutch(and English-) speaking university. A completely independent Frenchspeaking Université Catholique de Louvain (U.C. Louvain) was formed and moved to a brand-new campus in Louvain-la-Neuve, a new town created in the Walloon (or French-speaking) region, about an equal distance from Brussels. With the split, the existing library had to be divided. The disputants negotiated a typically Belgian compromise: those volumes with even call numbers went to U.C. Louvain and those with odd call numbers went to K.U. Leuven. When I arrived in Leuven in February 2006 as a visiting scholar,1 I was aware of this history and knew about Belgium’s language cleavage and linguistic frontier.2 But I thought the conflict between the Flemish and Walloon peoples was a thing of the past, of little contemporary relevance to my interest in ethnic conflicts in general and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. Two experiences were soon to suggest I might be wrong on both counts. Robert H. Mnookin

Beyond the Best Interests of the Child, Joseph Goldstein, Anna Freud, Albert J. Solnit (Eds.). The Free Press, New York (1973), 176,

Beyond The Best Interests Of The Child *FREE* beyond the best interests of the child § 20-124.2. Court-ordered custody and visitation arrangements. A. In any case in which custody or visitation of minor children is at issue, whether in a circuit or district court, the court shall provide prompt adjudication, upon due consideration of all the facts, of custody and visitation arrangements, including support and maintenance for the children, prior to other considerations arising ...§ 20 124 2 Court ordered custody and visitation arrangements § 20 124 2 Court ordered custody and visitation arrangements A In any case in which custody or visitation of minor children is at issue whether in a circuit or district court the court shall provide prompt adjudication upon due consideration of all the facts of custody and visitation arrangements including support and maintenance for the children prior to other considerations arising Moritz College of Lawhome » Ohio State Law Journal It s the best of all worlds for students at the Moritz College of Law Classes are small and intimate Yet they can enjoy the facilities resources and entertainment only a world class university can offer Effective Early Childhood Education Programs A Systematic The Best Evidence Encyclopedia is a free web site created by the Johns Hopkins University School of Education’s Center for Data Driven Reform in Education CDDRE under funding from the Institute of Education Sciences U S Department of Education Building Positive Relationships with Young Children Module 1 Handout 1 5 Building Relationships and Creating Supportive Environments button being pushed—he or she may consistently become frustrated and UN Convention UNICEF Article 1 Everyone under 18 has these rights Article 2 All children have these rights no matter who they are where they live what their parents do GHANA S Child and Family Welfare Policy 1 CHILD AND FAMILY WELFARE POLICY iv DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS Child This Policy recognises a child as a person below the age of 18 In line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child the 1992 Fourth Republic Constitution Indiana Parenting Time Guidelines Commentary 1 Use of Term “Parenting Time ” Throughout these Guidelines the words “parenting time” have been used instead of the word “visitation” so as to emphasize the importance of the time a parent spends with a child SAMPLE Children s Rights Council CHILDREN’S RIGHTS COUNCIL Model Shared Parenting Agreement Page 4 of 12 6 Holidays We both agree that the child ren will spend holidays and vacations as detailed in the Holiday Vacation Schedule Attachment A beginning with the SEXUAL OFFENDER TREATMENT Eher et al When entering the added sum score of Static 99 and Stable 2007 and clinical diagnoses as covariates again only the addition of static and dynamic scores exp b 1 25 p lt 0 001 and the diagnosis of a narcissistic personality disorder exp b 6 44 p lt 0 01 but no other clinical diagnosis demonstrated a significant relationship to sexual reoffense Law section California 273a a Any person who under circumstances or conditions likely to produce great bodily harm or death willfully causes or permits any child to suffer or inflicts thereon unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering or having the care or custody of any child willfully causes or permits the person or health of that child to be injured or willfully causes or permits that child to be Meaningful Change for Family Justice Beyond Wise Words Meaningful Change for Family Justice Beyond Wise Words Final Report of the Family Justice Working Group of the Action Committee on Access to Justice 16 Gestures by 16 Months Intervening Early Having 16 Gestures is a Critical Milestone to Launch Language and Learning Watching the growth and sophistication of gestures tells you a lot about your child’s symbolic communication—and International child abduction Wikipedia The