Sen, justice and the private realm of dispute resolution

Abstract

AbstractThe attainment of justice through a private dispute-resolution process, such as the mediation process, is an elusive objective. With the prominent place mediation has been given in civil justice, debates about the ability of mediation to deliver substantive justice are relevant, particularly when proponents of the process argue that mediation offers some form of justice to its participants, while critics argue that it provides no justice. This paper explores the issue of justice in the private dispute-resolution process of mediation and its ability to deliver a substantive form of justice (rather than procedural or popular justice, which is often seen as the type of justice, if any, that is provided by mediation). It does so through an analysis of ethnographic data of the mediation process using Amartya Sen's justice framework set out inThe Idea of Justice.