Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work

This Award was created by the Dispute Resolution Section and approved by the American Bar Association Board of Governors to recognize outstanding scholarly work in the dispute resolution field. It is presented annually at the Legal Educators Colloquium at the Section’s Annual Conference.

ELIGIBILITY AND CRITERIA

1. An individual whose scholarship has contributed significantly to the dispute resolution field is eligible for this Award if he or she meets the criteria set forth below.
2. The nominees for this Award shall be judged using one or more of the following criteria:
   1. Authored a scholarly publication or a body of work exhibiting excellence in research, writing, and analysis or the introduction of new concepts in dispute resolution; or
   2. Embodied “scholarship in action” for a collective body of work that brings theory to practice in developing (for example) laws, uniform acts, codes of conduct, protocols, competitions, or new programs and services ­ over a sustained period of time. 

SELECTION COMMITTEE

The Co-Chairs of the Outstanding Scholarly Work Award Selection Committee will be appointed each year by the Chair of the Section in consultation with the Chair-Elect both as of the date of the Spring Conference. The Selection Committee is comprised of the Co-Chairs and not less than five members appointed by the Chair of the Section in consultation with the Chair-Elect and the Selection Committee Co-Chairs.  The Selection Committee shall include a former Section Chair or current officer or Council member, a past Section Award recipient, at least one full-time law school faculty member whose teaching and scholarly work focus on dispute resolution, and the Chair of the Legal Educators Colloquium for the given year. Consideration for the remaining members of the Committee will be given to distinguished practitioners, and members of the editorial board of the Section’s Dispute Resolution Magazine.   

Submit a nomination for the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work

Curent Recipient

Joseph B. “Josh” Stulberg selected as 2019 Recipient of Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work

Professor Joseph B. “Josh” Stulberg, the Michael E. Moritz Chair in Alternative Dispute Resolution at The Ohio State University Mortiz College of Law, is the 2019 recipient of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s Award for Outstanding Scholarly Work. This award honors individuals whose scholarship has contributed significantly to the field of dispute resolution.

Professor Stulberg’s accomplishments are almost too numerous to mention. A prolific and influential scholar, Professor Stulberg has published more than 60 articles in professional journals on theoretical, policy, and practice issues in dispute resolution. In particular, his piece The Theory and Practice of Mediation: A Reply to Professor Susskind has become a classic of dispute resolution scholarship, and was the subject of its own symposium on the 30th anniversary of its publication, at Marquette University in 2011. In addition, he has co-authored multiple books on mediation, including The Middle Voice (with Lela P. Love) as well as a co-authored law school textbook, Mediation Theory and Practice. His is the recipient of The Ohio State University Faculty Award for Excellence in Community-Based Scholarship (2003), a testament to his impact of his scholarship beyond academia.

Professor Stulberg has also been influential in promoting the development of Dispute Resolution. He led the formation of the country’s first LL.M. Program in Dispute Resolution, at the University of Missouri School of Law, and created and co-directed Wayne State’s Master of Arts in Dispute Resolution. Stulberg served as the reporter for the Joint Committee on the Model Standards of Conduct for Mediators. He was co-chair of the editorial board of the ABA’s Dispute Resolution Magazine and a former Vice President of the American Arbitration Association (heading the Community Dispute Services). He is the recipient of the 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators.  Most recently, he co-founded and serves on the steering committee for The Ohio State University’s Divided Communities Project, which was named the recipient of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s 2018 institutional Lawyer as Problem Solver Award.

His scholarship is also put into action through his teaching. One of the nation’s pre-eminent mediator trainers, he is the only individual to participate in conducting mediator training for the U.S. Attorney General’s original Neighborhood Justice Center programs in Atlanta, Kansas City, and Los Angeles. Professor Stulberg has trained nearly 10,000 people across the nation and the world to serve in court, agency-based, or community-based dispute resolution programs. He developed and conducted the prototype 40-hour mediator training programs for the supreme courts of Florida and Michigan; designed and implemented the first peer-mediation program in New York City public schools; teamed with Partners for Democratic Change to deliver dispute resolution training to governmental and NGO leaders in Central and Eastern Europe; and has taught courses on mediation theory and practice at multiple U.S. law schools and for university students in Western, Central, and Eastern Europe.

The Scholarly Work Award will be presented to Professor Stulberg on April 13^th, 2019 during the Legal Educators Colloquium Luncheon at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as part of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Annual Spring Conference. For tickets to the Luncheon and more information about the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution Spring Conference and the Legal Educators Colloquium, go to Spring Conference page.

Past Recipients

2018 - Charles Craver

2017- Andrea Kupfer Schneider

2016 – Robert Mnookin

2015 – Jean Sternlight

2014 – Lisa Blomgren Amsler

2013 – Leonard Riskin

2012 – Frank Sander

2011 – Carrie Menkel Meadow