This course is available on the Executive Master of Laws (ELLM). This course is not available as an outside option.

Available to Executive LLM students only. This course will be offered on the Executive LLM during the four year degree period. The Law School will not offer all Executive LLM courses every year, although some of the more popular courses may be offered in each year, or more than once each year. Please note that whilst it is the Law School's intention to offer all Executive LLM courses, its ability to do so will depend on the availability of the staff member in question. For more information please refer to the Law School website. 

The principal focus of the course is upon methods of resolving disputes other than adjudication. The course brings together theory and observation of practice and is divided into two parts. In the first section students examine what motivates people to enter into disputes and the range of outcomes they seek, the history of the “informal justice” movement and the transformation of attitudes to dispute resolution in the UK and beyond. The emphasis in this part of the course is also on looking at the two primary forms of dispute resolution, negotiation and mediation. In the second part of the course specialist practitioners work with the class in exploring the interface between theory and practice and the different dynamics of disputes and their resolution in specific subject areas such as commercial law, community disputes, international law and family law. The course is designed to complement the option on Commercial Arbitration.

24-26 hours of contact time.

Students will have the option of producing a formative exam question of 2000 words to be delivered one month from the end of the module’s teaching session by email.

Students will also find it useful to access the following books which provide important context for debate about the civil litigation system and negotiation tactics:

Henry Brown and Arthur Marriot, (2012) ADR: Principles and Practice, London: Sweet and Maxwell. This is written by practitioners but also makes reference to a number of seminal academic studies. It provides a good framework within which to position the more in-depth arguments contained in the academic articles set each week.

Genn, Hazel, (2009) Judging Civil Justice (The Hamlyn Lectures) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. This book provides a really good overview of civil justice reforms across developed legal systems and will alert you to many of the academic and policy debates which have surrounded reform.

Roger Fisher and William Ury (2012) Getting to Yes: Negotiating an Agreement Without Giving In, Random House. This is a classic text in the field and very simple to read. This book will also help you when we come to study mediation which is often described as a form of facilitated negotiation.

Simon Roberts and Michael Palmer's 2005 (second edition) Dispute Processes: ADR and the Primary Forms of Dispute Resolution, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.  This is the most theoretical book in this list but provides extracts from many of the seminal works in the field that we will be studying. It adopts a very inter-disciplinary approach. This is useful as background reading.

Assessment path 1
Essay (100%, 8000 words).

Assessment path 2
Take-home assessment (100%).