He recognizes that the scenes he has sometimes deteriorate to banal depictions of a thorny dispute, but defends this with the argument that "clichés often become reality in times of conflict.,"

At the moment, the thorniest dispute over the issue concerns a male-circumcision ritual practiced by some Hasidic Jews in New York.

But now a housing court judge has issued a ruling strictly enforcing the artist-only policy in one thorny landlord-tenant dispute.

It often fell to Mamedov to smooth over the thorniest Russia-USA disputes.

There was, however, no substantive progress on the thorny disputes in the Caucasus, giving the meeting a decidedly political flavor.

Just when Turkey seemed to be making progress toward joining the European Union, thorny old disputes have risen up as reminders there is no guarantee of membership.

The plan now calls for that matter to be addressed in the last of three phases, when the thorniest disputes are to be negotiated.

He has since specialized in finding ways to forge consensus, outside the courts, on thorny environmental disputes like those over the location of hazardous waste facilities.

Another reason to pursue G.M. first is that the U.A.W. has the thorniest disputes with General Motors.