Earn a Juris Doctorate and a Master of Arts in Peacemaking and Conflict Studies

Lawyers face human conflict every day and often attempt to resolve problems outside of litigation. However, lawyers are trained only to abstract and objectify intensely personal conflicts into rights, remedies, defenses, and obligations. Human conflicts are reduced to money, judgments, injunctions, and declarations of rights. This approach works for some conflicts, but fails miserably in many others, leaving all parties dissatisfied with the outcomes.

Peacemakers are trained to understand human conflict and the necessary conditions for peaceful resolution from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The focus is not only on resolving rights, but also on restoring the relationships. The Masters Degree in Peacemaking and Conflict Studies (PACS) teaches students to analyze conflict from a humanistic perspective, drawing on conflict theory, social psychology, neurophysiology, religion, and sociology. It looks to the core reasons for conflict – the hidden conflict drivers – identity, relationships, and process. These drivers are the basis for perceived injustice and, when acknowledged and addressed, create constructive resolutions. The Masters in Peacemaking curriculum teaches students a broad range of collaborative processes to bring about reconciliation rather than escalation.

The Cooperative Degree program – joining training in law and peacemaking – seeks to add this new set of skills to the lawyer’s toolbox for resolving conflict. It joins the discipline of law with the humanistic approach of peacemaking to create a new breed of professional that promises to transform the way our society resolves conflict. Students simultaneously enrolled in both degree programs can complete both degrees in four years because of the mutual recognition of elective units.

Both the Juris Doctor Degree and the Masters Degree place a strong emphasis on practical experience. Students are encouraged to undertake clinical work in the law program. In the Masters program students are required to apply their learning in direct conflict resolution experiences.