tely the same power over the litigants. Galanter goes on to say that the formal legal system is expanding its use of ADR, including judicial mediation. As can be seen in this case, the two forums of dispute settlement, formal and informal, are not completely separated. The formal court system has incorporated the informal method of mediation with a slight twist; the mediator is a member of the formal legal system.The fact that Posner is a judge and a member of the formal legal system is of great importance. The principle contribution of the courts to dispute resolution is providing a background of norms and procedures against which negotiations and regulation in both private and governmental settings take place. (Galanter, 1984) Because Posner is a part of the court system, he is in an ideal position to establish such norms and procedures; he works with them every day and is familiar with their operations and applications. His knowledge of the court system will also be integral in the negotiations as applicable to what Galanter refers to as bargaining endowments, or what each side can use to his advantage in negotiations. Posner will be able to identify the bargaining endowments of each side, because he knows what the probable outcome of formal adjudication would be, and let both Microsoft and the government use these during the negotiations. For example, if Posner knows that formal adjudication will probably result in the prohibition of Microsoft to distribute their browser for free in the future and that they will also be broken up into two or more smaller firms, this would be a bargaining endowment for the government. They would use the probable outcome of a court trial to their advantage in informal negotiations. In this example the government could offer Microsoft the chance to remain as one complete unit instead of splitting into two or more smaller ones, in exchange for ceasing to give away their browser. By employing such bar...
