The Amazing Carrie Menkel-Meadow and What Wins When Passions Collide

Carrie Menkel-Meadow (sometimes referred to as “Carrie” herein) is famous in the dispute resolution world as one of the field’s founders. Her prolific writing on dispute resolution—negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and the variants of these major processes—evidences an unrivaled passion for the subject. A renaissance thinker, her intellectual explorations also extend to other areas such as women’s rights and restorative justice for victims of egregious wrongs. Her multiple passions sometimes create dynamic tensions.

For example, what happens if mediation norms threaten a woman’s rights? Or if mediators divert the focus of a dispute resolution process to the future, neglecting a horrific past? This Essay, in Part II, comments on Carrie Menkel-Meadow’s career and scholarship and then, in Part III, looks at two instances where dynamic tensions arise when her quest for justice in chosen arenas collides with mediation norms. When incompatible passions collide, what prevails?