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Papal Arbitration - How the Early Roman Catholic Church Influenced Modern Dispute Resolution - Dispute Resolution Journal - Vol. 52, No. 3

Author(s): 
Henry T. King Jr.
Marc A. Le Forestier
Page Count: 
7 pages
Published: 
August, 1997
Practice Areas: 
Dispute Resolution & Litigation,
ADR
Tags: 
Papal Arbitration
Author Detail: 

Henry T. King Jr. is a professor of law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he teaches international arbitration. He is also of counsel to the international law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey. In 1992 he received the AAA’s Whitney North Seymour Award for his work in the field of international arbitration. He is U.S. chairman of the ABA/CBA/Barra Mexicana Joint Working Group on the Settlement of International Disputes.

Marc A. Le Forestier is a 1994 graduate of the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he served as executive editor of the Journal of International Law. He has worked as a research assistant to Professor Henry T. King in the development of a textbook on international arbitration.

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Description: 

Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

Christian theology, manifested through the Catholic Church, formed the basis for the church’s historic role as an arbitrator among Christian sovereigns, specifically during the Middle Ages. “This role crystallized during the 13th century…because the church’s moral authority merged with its political power and the diplomatic and legal capabilities of individual popes,” explain Henry King and Marc Le Forestier. They provide a comprehensive examination of the part played by the church in the evolution of alternative methods of dispute resolution and evaluate the characteristics needed by modern peacemakers to emulate the success of the medieval papacy.

Crusades, inquisitions and excommunications are probably the best known historical examples of the dispute resolution techniques of the early Roman Catholic Church. While such approaches are not commonly associated with successful dispute resolution in a modern context, they well served the early church by allowing it to attain a position of religious and political dominance in its European domains.