Research grants may shed light on ending disputes in India, Kenya, and Latin America.

As the first Stanford Law students to receive their JDs after the September 11 attacks, members of the Class of 2002 were particularly aware of the need for well-trained global peacemakers. So their 3L Gift to the Law School—the Class of 2002 Fellowship in Conflict Resolution—was a fitting statement of their commitment to ending the cycle of violence. 

The new program provides grants, ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, to Stanford Law students and alumni pursuing research or fieldwork in conflict resolution. The program honors the memory of negotiations instructor Steve Neustadter, who died in January 2002. 

The four inaugural fellows were selected last spring. Manuel Gomez, JSM ’02, JSD ’06, is examining conflict resolution mechanisms for corporate disputes in Latin America. Peter Lamb, JD/MA ’05, is studying dispute settlement issues in the stalled $3 billion Dabhol Power Project in India. Elizabeth Muli, JSM ’02, JSD ’06, is evaluating government truth commissions, focusing especially on one in her native Kenya. And Mike Woodhouse ’03 is writing a simulation based on real-world conflicts to illustrate principles of path dependence in multilateral negotiations. 

“Through this fellowship the students become teachers, too,” says Maude Pervere, Senior Lecturer in Law and a Director of the Law School’s Martin Daniel Gould Center for Conflict Resolution Programs, which oversees the fellowship. Indeed, the fellows are required to return to share their findings with the Law School community. “Their research has lots of applications in the classroom,” she adds. 

The Gould Center was established on campus six years ago with support from the Joseph B. Gould Foundation.