The legal profession and law schools are increasingly recognizing their responsibility to equip lawyers and law students with an understanding of the vital connection between discourse approach, learning, engagement, and the functioning of democratic institutions. Discourse is constructive and civil when the goals are expanding knowledge, promoting understanding, and building mutual respect. This is especially needed for lawyers in deliberation on matters of public concern. This website seeks to provide resources for learning, skill building, and engagement in robust and respectful communication in the legal profession.

This site collects and indexes research related to the teaching and learning of constructive and civil discourse with the purpose of providing a single site for an online repository for any university, faculty, staff, students, and lawyers interested in the topic. The Clearinghouse is a project of Stanford Law School’s Gould Center for Conflict Resolution and ePluribus. It was conceived and initiated by the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section Task Force on Civil Discourse with the support of law faculty from Stanford, Texas A&M, South Texas, Quinnipiac, and Ohio State. Thanks to Bruce Meyerson for his generous donation to launch the Clearinghouse.