Example ADR method dissertation topic 4:

Can ADR deliver justice?

Increasingly, prior to litigation, parties are involved in some form of ADR; however, has the growing dependency on ADR actually resulted in greater access to justice or is it a false economy? ADR can, notoriously, be extremely expensive with ADR ‘specialists’ being employed to iron out a resolution to a dispute. Moreover, in contractual contracts the inclusion of express arbitration clauses has resulted in the legally enforceable requirement to participate in a form of ADR which can often be just as expensive (if not more so) than litigation itself. This dissertation looks at whether the various forms of ADR can actually delivery justice, and whether such justice is the bargain it was once espoused to be.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Landsman, S ‘ADR and the Cost of Compulsion’ [2005] 57(5) SLRS 1593
• Sternlight, J ‘ADR is here: Preliminary reflections on where it fits in a system of justice’ [2002] 3 Nev LJ 289
• Stipanowich, T ‘ADR and the “Vanishing Trial”: the growth and impact of “Alternative Dispute Resolution”‘ [2004] 1(3) JELS 843