Oikos Senior Fellow Publishes Study

The Fordham Urban Law Journal has published a study by Oikos Senior Fellow and Oklahoma City University Law Professor Phyllis Bernard on “Minorities, Mediation and Method: The View from One Court-Connected Mediation Program.” Bernard is director of OCU’s Center on Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Bernard studied cross cultural dynamics in small claims court mediations to examine the role of race in mediation. She explained the Critical Race Theory holds that bias against minorities is so embedded that without the formalities of a trial, minorities cannot expect to receive justice. Similar theories say the same for women.

OCU Law students analyzed the dynamics of mediations conducted through the Early Settlement Central Mediation Program while OCU directed the program on behalf of the Oklahoma Supreme Court.

 “The longitudinal data compiled are rare among mediation programs anywhere in the nation,” Bernard said. “We let the experience inform the theory, instead of imposing a theory on real life experience. It was eye-opening.”

The study found, contrary to leading race and feminist theories, race did not matter as much as gender and gender did not matter as much as socio-economic class. Further, the study demonstrated how a carefully constructed system for selection, training and monitoring of mediators can assure fairness.

The study was the lead article in a special issue of the Fordham Urban Law Journal on alternative dispute resolution. In October Bernard will speak on “The Evolution of the New Lawyer” at Fordham Law School’s third annual Alternative Dispute Resolution Symposium.