Part 2 of a discussion on domestic and international disputes in the entertainment field with NBC Universal attorneys, Susan E. Weiner, executive vice president and deputy general counsel, and David L. Burg, who is senior vice president for litigation.

Disputes at a television network attract a great deal of attention, and need a great deal of conflict management skills. Not to mention cutting-edge tools. Two top lawyers at NBC Universal Inc. talk discovery, arbitration, mediation, and the nature of business disputes in the first of two parts.

IDN 80 guest Stefano Azzali explains the ADR innovations used by the Milan Chamber of Commerce's Court of National and International Arbitration. The Italy-based regional ADR provider is a lot more versatile than its name suggests. Azzali, who is the chamber court's secretary general, describes how mediation has become the the arbitration court's biggest growth area.

Understand the brain, make better choices in ADR. In Part 2 of his discussion with the principals behind the nonprofit Master Mediation Institute, Robert A. Creo and Monique McKay, International Dispute Negotiation host Michael McIlwrath looks at the science of decision making--and "the science behind mediators" sense." As Mike noted in Part I last week, this subject "could be a game changer."

This week's podcast focuses on recent initiatives exploring the science of decision making and conflict resolution.. Pittsburgh attorney-neutral and CPR website Master Mediator columnist Robert A. Creo returns to IDN to discuss the Master Mediator Institute, which he co-founded in 2008. The Institute focuses on the art and science of mediation, negotiation and facilitated decision making. Also joining IDN host Michael McIlwrath is MMI Director and co-founder Monique McKay, who points out that MMI is creating a community of mediators, counsel, executives and scientists to help people integrate negotiating decisions - that is, combine the rational basis of bargaining strategies and choices with the pull of the underlying emotional component, individual values and other subjective factors which are often unacknowledged or even ignored in business settings. First of two parts.

IDN host Michael McIlwrath speaks with Nicholas Henchie, a partner in the London office of Mayer Brown. They analyze the benefits and the needs for limited processes, including, at the end, the new CPR Institute global accelerated rules.

"Moving beyond the Salami" is just one of a big group of negotiating techniques discussed this week with Christian Duve, a partner in Freshfields Bruckinger Deringer in Frankfurt, Germany. These negotiations strive for agreement, of course, but they're also all about competition.

Why is U.S. justice so scary for the rest of the world? Why do European general counsel fear U.S. courts? It's not just the juries and the punitive damages, according to Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., a legendary University of Pennsylvania Law School scholar and ethicist, who suggests that the problems with the U.S. court system are even deeper and more complex than its obvious features. "The [U.S.] civil law remedy of damages is regarded as a kind of offset or compensation adjustment," says Hazard, for regulatory failure, and the lack of a social safety net.

The view on apologies from a veteran mediator: Robert A. Creo, a longtime friend of the CPR Institute, visits International Dispute Negotiation host Michael McIlwrath in Florence, Italy, to discuss why saying you are sorry can bring about a positive resolution.

Luca Radicati di Brozolo, a partner focusing on arbitration at the Bonelli Erede Pappalardo law firm in Milan, and Andrea Bernava, a litigation partner in the Chiomenti law firm's Rome and Milan offices, set out the current state of mediation and arbitration practices in Italy.