1 Łukasz Kurek Jagiellonian University Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies Legal Negotiations and the Theory of Mind I. Introduction There is an intuitive and indeterminate relationship between legal negotiations and the Theory of Mind (ToM) – the ability to think about beliefs, desires, knowledge, intentions and other contents of the mind. The overarching goal of this essay is to suggest how these two phenomena could be intertwined. Furthermore, it will be argued that the analysis of the case of negotiations from the perspective of ToM – i.e. mindreading – provides valuable insights not only for the subject matter of negotiations but also for the research connected with our ability to think about minds. Namely, on the one hand, various experimental results pertaining to ToM prove to be useful for the parties participating in bargaining behavior. On the other hand, the case of legal negotiations is a special case of social interaction which requires, inter alia, advanced cognitive mechanisms which enable to read other minds. The rate of success at bargaining behavior and the manner it is carried out could be used as a tool to „measure‟ our mindreading capacities. II. Legal Negotiations from the Psychological Perspective In the literature pertaining to legal negotiations, the psychological dimension of this activity is often understood as the most important both for the practitioners and theoreticians of negotiations. 1 This should not be surprising as negotiations are the most informal method of resolving legal disputes. They are not bounded by a strict procedure and there is no person who could authoritatively impose the resolution to the dispute. The main weapons of 1 J. Stelmach, B. Brożek, The Art of Legal Negotiations, Wolters Kluwer, Warsaw 2013, p. 31.