Most of the answers are disheartening not for proponents of local mediation programs but for those who would seek in such programming a transformation of the law or of society. Christine Harrington adds an interesting perspective by placing conflict resolution in the context of other community organizing efforts such as community policing, governance and direct action, although Shonholtz's caveat about the formal goals of SFCB should be kept in mind. Since his essay is, to this reviewer, a frustrating mixture of insightful and incoherent statements, I cannot be sure I have it right. Several observers and critics note that mediation can be seen as a form of law. But Lederach and Kraybill's penetrating analysis of the Mennonite dispute resolution process display this point in detail.
Mediation is far from a spontaneous process.
This is acceptable to the practice of dispute resolution, but their next step is very much like the heart of legal reasoning. This is more or less the core of how legal doctrine develops in the judicial process and is the standard interpretation of the appellate process, with legal fundamentalists and originalists occupying a marginal position. This insight into community mediation provided by Lederach and Kraybill thus leads to a further paradox. If mediation is seen to have this capacity, then it becomes a form of lawmaking with the capacity to upset established values. The book offers many rewards for the advanced student of law and society studies.