The discourses of mediation and the power of naming

This chapter explores forms of talk deployed by people who use the lower courts and mediation programs to handle their interpersonal problems. It examines various cases which illustrate the interplay of the discourses. The chapter considers the significance of the power of naming for legal processes and for the people involved in them and argues that the use of naming by legal institutions constitutes a form of cultural domination. Moral Discourse is a discourse of relationships, of obligations between neighbors, parents and children, and brothers and sisters. Legal Discourse is a discourse of property, of rights, of the protection of one's self and one's goods, of entitlement, of facts and truth. Therapeutic Discourse is a discourse drawn from the helping professions, one which talks of behavior as environmentally caused rather than based on individual fault.