Welcome to our video series sponsored in recognition of the American Bar Association’s Mediation Week which this year focuses on Civility and Civil Public Discourse. That focus is related to the passage of Resolution 108, which encourages more civil political discourse by the ABA House of Delegates in August, 2011. Our first video, “Civility and the Rule of Law” features an interview with Professor Richard Reuben, who is the James Lewis Parks Professor of Law at the University of Missouri Law School, and who also, in his role as chair of the ABA Dispute Resolution Committee on Public Policy, Consensus Building and Democracy, played a key role in the drafting of Resolution 108. We invite you to show this video to groups you may be involved with and invite discussion. Here are some questions you might ask the group to discuss: How does civility help improve (or a lack of civility erode) our collective problem solving capacity? What is the rule of law? How does civility interact with the rule of law? What can we do to promote greater civility in our public discourse? We invite you to share your comments and experiences by using the comment feature on this blog.
You can find additional resources for civil discourse through the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation and through the ABA’s Mediation Week Toolkit.
All videos were recorded using VTC Stream. Find out more about this technology at vtcstream.com. You can use the “embed and share” link to the right of the video to post this to your website or other location.
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