Fairness

The central difficulty in solving most disputes is finding a solution that all parties involved consider “fair.” Of course, fairness is a subjective issue, and is very difficult to define or quantify. Surprisingly, however, a mathematical perspective can help identify what it means for a solution to be fair and offer a variety methods or procedures for achieving a solution in many types of disputes.

Another common type of dispute involves fairly allocating a number of goods among several parties, such as that which occurs in the distribution of marital assets in a divorce or the division of an estate among two or more heirs. In fact, similar methods can be used for disputes in which it is not a physical set of goods that is under contention but a set of issues that need to be resolved. For example, two political parties deciding on rules for a debate between candidates might argue over the issues of the length of the debate, the source of the questions, and the time allowed for initial answers and rebuttals.We will look at what it means for solutions to these types of disputes to be fair, and how to achieve such a solution.