|
Free review copies of non-English Teacher’s Packages will be emailed upon request. Please contact
chouse@law.harvard.edu
or telephone 800-258-4406 (within the U.S.) or 781-239-1111 (outside the U.S.) SCENARIO:
The Queen Malia Estate has entered into an agreement with the Elima Iki Development Company (EIDC) for the leasing of 500 acres of land around Menehune Bay in Hawaii. EIDC is planning a world-class resort for the site - including eight hotels, two golf courses, recreational clubs, and private condominium units. The project has support from the business and construction community on the island but faces opposition from environmental groups and local residents. The Mayor has remained fairly noncommittal about the project, and feels that a number of questions must be answered before he can decide on the proposal. He has invited designated representatives from the six groups most interested in the project to serve on a Special Advisory Committee, indicating that if five of the six groups can reach an agreement, he will go along with their recommendations.
MAJOR LESSONS:
Successful facilitation of mediation of land use disputes involves attention to procedural concerns. The role of the neutral in establishing procedural guidelines should be clearly understood by all parties before substantive negotiation begins.
It is difficult to ensure that all participants in a complex negotiation have a chance to be heard, and that the ideas expressed accumulate in a constructive fashion. One of the primary tasks of the facilitator or mediator is to ensure that an acceptable record of all discussions is kept.
The facilitator or mediator is responsible for making sure that the group arrives at final decisions that resolve the issues at hand. It is often as difficult to get a group of disputants to agree on a process for deciding as it is to reach an agreement.
Inventing new options is critical to finding a workable agreement in a complex public dispute. The line between facilitation and mediation begins to blur as the neutral facilitator takes a more active role in the invention of new options.
ADDITIONAL NOTES:
Available on its own or as part of the Resolving Public Disputes package
TEACHING MATERIALS:
For all parties: A Brief History on the Proposed Project Map 1: Estate Lands Map 2: The proposed Site
Role Specific:
Confidential Instructions for Representatives of the following groups: Construction Now Hawaii Development Information Association Elima Iki Development Company Hawaii's Friends of the Environment Menehune Bay> Users Association
Teacher's Package (31 pages total):
All of the above
Teaching notes
KEYWORDS:
Multi-party negotiations; mediating land use disputes; aboriginal rights; environmental dispute resolution; mediation
THEMES:
Agenda control; Coalitions; Consensus building; Ethics; Integrative bargaining; Objective criteria
MECHANICS: This simulation requires seven players--representatives of each of the six major interests plus a facilitator. The players should be given 30-40 minutes to read the game, and 90 minutes to negotiate. The debriefing takes at least one hour.
|
