The MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program, one of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School’s many research programs, acts as a center for research committed to thinking about and resolving disputes in the public sector. Led by its Director and Program on Negotiation executive committee member Lawrence Susskind, the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program conducts research dealing with international environmental treaty negotiations, public sector consensus building, and advocating for the importance of the science behind any negotiations about resource management.
The MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program, a center for action research committed to thinking about and resolving disputes in the public sector, is one of several research programs and projects of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. The Public Disputes Program is led by Director and MIT Professor Lawrence Susskind, and Associate Directors David Fairman and Patrick Field. The Public Disputes Program has ongoing research activities dealing with international environmental treaty negotiations, consensus building in the public sector, and ensuring that science is given its due in resource management decisions. In addition, the Program is focusing on the social responsibilities of multinational corporations, how mediation can be used to resolve values-based and identity-based disputes, and how recent findings in the communications field might enhance negotiation practice.
The research, “Collaborative Approaches to Environmental Decision-Making,” features 12 case studies drawn from real scenarios in New England and is intended for state agencies that are trying to make use of a collaborative approach to negotiations in order to have more effective conversations, make better decisions, and build supporting coalitions for the decisions reached at the bargaining table. The “Collaborative Approaches to Environmental Decision-Making” serves as an orientation guide and provides points of guidance gleaned from negotiations conducted by professional mediators and facilitators.
The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School is a consortium of faculty and students from Harvard University, MIT, and Tufts University. Founded in 1983 by Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton, the Program on Negotiation advocates for integrative bargaining solutions to disputes and incorporates many fields into its research and scholarship, including: law, business, psychology, public policy, and diplomacy.
To view the research in PDF format, please click here.
