Dispute-resolution techniques presented to Asia trade forum

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer

As world trade increases, so do the disputes.

And that's what a conference that opened yesterday and will run through tomorrow at the East-West Center is all about: It will offer to Asia the expertise that Hawai'i has developed over the past 20 years in finding culturally sensitive ways to handle trade differences.

"Hawai'i has been a forerunner in this whole area of saying the courts aren't the best way to resolve disputes," said conference chairman Bartlett Durand, a third-year law student at the Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawai'i.

Hawai'i has seen the growth of neighborhood dispute resolution centers now called the Mediation Center of the Pacific, with an awareness of the needs to put disputes within a cultural context.

"When people in the same culture grow up with a common background, they know the ground rules to resolve a dispute," said Durand. "But when people go between cultures it's all of a sudden 'I don't know what's going on' and Hawai'i has had to deal with that. As a result Hawai'i has become one of the leaders in intercultural alternative dispute resolution."

The experience has helped keep many disagreements from clogging Hawai'i court calendars, said Durand.

Thirteen Pacific Rim countries are participating in the conference with the hope that each will take home a working knowledge of how to create a similar structure in their own countries.

"In Japan, and other parts of Asia, litigation is not something they enjoy at all," Durand said. "But if you have a problem with an American company, with $5 million at stake, how do you handle it? In the U.S. you can go to court and all be friends the next day. But in Japan, everything is based on relationships."

APEC — the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum — has sent a panel to participate in the workshops, said Durand.

Reach Bev Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.