As Janet Rifkin (1990) points out in a recent Negotiation Journal column, t.here are many examples of terms used ha the fast-growing dispute resolution field that need definition. We came face-to-face with this problem in the course of a recent study of courtrelated ADR programs in Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois, where we encountered many people who were unclear about the term "alternative dispute resolution" in general, as well as the differences that separate adjudication from settlement mechanisms and the latter from collaborative problemsolving processes. It is important to define such terms clearly both to help consunaers make sense of court-related alternative dispute resolution programs and to promote thoughtful future patterns of growth for these programs.Central to an understanding of alternatives is a distinction between adjudicatory and collaborative processes. The former are based on the assumption that disputes arise when people differ over the meaning and and Margaret L. Shaw application of standards to specific conduct. The adjudicatory process empowers an intervenor to assess the truth of what the parties state, to identify, interpret and apply appropriate standards (whether derived from statutes, codes, contracts, or notions of "fairness" or "reasonableness") to a set of facts or events, and to assess the relative liabJRty or culpability of involved parties.In the adjudicatory process the neutral decides, while parties persuade. The adjudicator sifts through disputed facts and applies to them the cited standard, a task that frequently requires explanation of the standard by the neutral. The process is necessarily retrospective, and the issues consist of differences over the standard and/or the facts.A collaborative approach to conflict suggests that disputes fi~equendy arise

"It may seem stupid, but this is the only time someone ever listened to us." That blunt confession of a rioting prisoner states eloquently the need for a grievance mechanism in the correc tional context. The cost of violence as a means of obtaining redress of grievances is recognized unanimously as prohibitive.

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