In the Shadow of the Law: Applying Therapeutic Approaches to Sexual Harassment Conflicts in the Context of #MeToo

This article comprises a firsthand account of working as a university Sexual Harassment Commissioner (SHC), a role that manifests a combination of law and advanced conflict resolution practice. It offers a working model grounded in alternative justice principles to address sexual harassment and other, similar types of conflict. The resultant therapeutic and conflict resolution approach may apply to other institutions and other areas of law and society as well. Moreover, it fits in well during the era of #MeToo, where women raised their voices to challenge grave offenses such as rape, as well as attitudes, patterns, and allegedly “small” and sometimes non-litigable incidents of harassment that are part of an organizational culture.

Yet, the article’s primary focus is to outline an approach to constructive processing of sexual harassment conflicts in a way that brings healing to the victim while remaining sensitive to the offender, considering the wider circle of employees and characteristics of an academic environment. The working method of the SHC challenges the traditional functions of law and includes the use of alternative justice narratives about the meaning of contemporary law, including responsive regulation and therapeutic jurisprudence. It is, therefore, a hybrid institution that draws from two worlds—law and conflict resolution/therapy—to crystallize a unique worldview tailored to the type of conflict at stake, namely, sexual harassment at universities, with its unique characteristics and severity: power disparities, hierarchies, and diverse communities.