About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

30 Negot. J. 421 (2014)
Creativity in Court-Connected Mediation: Myth or Reality

handle is hein.journals/nejo30 and id is 421 raw text is: 













           Creativity in Court-Connected

           Mediation: Myth or Reality?


              Lin   Adrian and Solfrid Mykand




     In this study, we examined creativity in court-connected mediation. We
     analyzed 129  mediated agreements  from civil cases in Norway and
     Denmark  and compared  the outcomes with the parties' original claims
     to determine whether  the agreement addressed  only the disputants'
     demands  or  contained other elements. If the mediated agreements
     contained elements in addition to the original claims, we considered
     them  to be creative. We devised a creativity scale and found that
     approximately two thirds of the cases contained creative elements and
     one quarter of them contained more than five creative elements.
        We then sought to determine which aspects ofthe mediation promoted
     creativity by looking at a variety of mediation characteristics (length of
     mediation, characteristics of the parties, etc.). We found that lengthier
     mediations tended to feature more creativity as did cases that involved
     two private individuals rather than businesses. Cases whose issues
     involved inheritance as well as the division ofpropertyfollowing divorce
     seemed to foster the highest levels of creativity. Finally, we found that
     the amount ofmoney  at issue also seemed to be relevant:the highest levels
     of creativity were found in cases in which more money was at stake. In
     this article, we also discuss the implications of ourfindingsforfuture
     research, practice, and training.

     Key  words:   mediation, alternative dispute resolution, creativity,
     mediated   agreements,  settlements, court-connected   mediation,
     civil disputes, interests and needs.

Lin Adrian is an assistant professor on the faculty of law at the University of Copenhagen in
Denmark. Her e-mail address is lin.adrian@jur.ku.dk.
Solfrid Myldand is an associate professor on the faculty of engineering and business administra-
tion at Bergen University College and at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) in Norway. Her
e-mail address is solfrid.mykland@hib.no.

10.1111/nejo.12069
© 2014 President and Fellows of Harvard College Negotiation Journal October 2014 421

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

profiles profiles most