The McGill Center for Creative Problem Solving

California Western School of Law

The McGill Center for Creative Problem Solving is a non-profit think-tank established in 1997 as a department of California Western School of Law. Funded in part by a grant from the Weingart Foundation, the McGill Center's mandate is to provide students, lawyers, judges, and society at large with collaborative and innovative approaches to communication, conflict resolution and problem solving.

In addition to facilitating a less adversarial approach to legal education and lawyering, the McGill Center also develops and disseminates programs to improve the educational and social experience of youth, in San Diego region and worldwide. We are developing Youth Voices, a curriculum and video series in problem-solving and non-violent conflict resolution skills. This curriculum is specifically designed young people and is used in high schools, community center, detention centers, and after-school outreach programs. We administer a mediation program in which California Western students mediate conflicts in Small Claims Court and Juvenile Hall, and help train peer mediators in the San Diego Unified School District.

The McGill Center is also active on the binational and international front. We have assembled an elite team of highly skilled mediators and joint problem solvers in Tijuana and San Diego, including lawyers, academics, and judges. The McGill Center administers requests for team members to intervene in public policy and advanced commercial disputes involving both Mexican and American interests.

Its award-winning and internationally recognized Youth Voices programs has been translated into Spanish for our partner center, Centro de Resoluciones Alternatives (CREA), at the Catholic University of Temuco, Chile. With CREA, the McGill Center has begun Proyecto Acceso, an trans-American project to train lawyers, judges, and community leaders in Latin America in advocacy, mediation, and joint problem-solving.

Jamie Cooper is Executive Director of the McGill Center for Creative Problem Solving at California Western School of Law in San Diego. He teaches the Law of Armed Conflict and Peacekeeping, International Trade, and Problem Solving and Negotiation.

Jamie has been a delegate to the World Congress on Social Philosophy and the Law at the University of Iceland and to the United Nations Congress on Public International Law. His thoughts on the evolution of law, electronic media, self-determination, and international collaboration have been reported in the United Nations Congress volume series and a number of scholarly journals. His work also appeared in other newspapers and periodicals in North America, South America, and Europe.

Women's International Center lauds The McGill Center, its directors, mediators, and educators for the its outreach to the youth of the world. We proudly present the 1999 Living Legacy Award to the McGill Center.

For more information, visit McGill Center for Creative Problem Solving.