We need to do a better job of documenting and evaluating the dispute resolution experiments currently underway.

All too often, documentation and evaluation are nothing more than an afterthought -- the focus of attention only when it is too late to record what actually happened. Typically, evaluation consists of less-than-critical reflections by the participants, intervenors, or funders with the most at stake. And, even when documentation and evaluation are handled by independent observers, such efforts tend to be framed according to the observers' interests, and not with reference to overarching questions at the frontier of theory-building in' the dispute resolution field. These are formidable obstacles to improving practice.