Collaborative
development of ADR curriculum
The
Institute participated in a two-year project to develop
alternative dispute resolution curriculum and train faculty
teaching interested in teaching in these areas at the Yarmouk
University Faculty of Law in Irbid, Jordan. The project
began when Don Peters visited Jordan in June, 2000, on a
US State Department Specialist grant to consult with universities
regarding the development of ADR curriculums. It continued
with an Institute co-sponsored ten day visit to the Levin
College of Law by Yarmouk’s Dean, Director of its
Commercial Law Department, and Professor Sa’ed Al-Muhtaseb,
the young faculty member most likely to offer these courses
initially. The Yarmouk Faculty during this visit observed
dispute resolution classes and actual mediations in the
County Mediation clinic taught and supervised by Institute
Faculty and met with local judges and court administrators.
Institute faculty shared more than 400 pages of teaching
materials and problems which Professor Al-Muhtaseb then
translated into Arabic. After this visit the Yarmouk Law
Faculty approved the first negotiation and mediation course
to be offered at a law faculty in Jordan.
The
next step in this collaboration occurred in the summer of
2001 when Don Peters, on a Fulbright Senior Specialist grant,
spent two weeks Yarmouk. While there Don consulted with
Faculty and English-speaking students about the proposed
ADR course. He worked extensively with Professor Al-Muhtaseb
and other Yarmouk faculty interested in developing and teaching
courses in this area. He also met with Jordanian judges
and government officials, including the Minister of Justice,
promoting the development of formal, court-annexed mediation
systems to deal with a significant case overload in many
of Jordan’s courts. Professor Al-Muhtaseb then spent
three weeks in late August and early September of 2001 at
the Levin College of Law on a jointly sponsored trip where
he co-taught with Director Peters the intensive seminar
that begins the County Mediation Clinic. He also observed
and co-mediated cases.
Future
possibilities include seeking an Educational Partnership
grant to further develop this collaboration when Jordan
returns to the eligible countries list, proceeding with
World Bank funding ideas that Director Peters helped draft
during his visit, and bringing another Yarmouk Faculty member
for training at the beginning of a future fall term.
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