This is the first of a series of four blog postings written by Nadja Alexander , Michael Leathes , Tina Monberg and Irena Vanenkova. Achieving the promise of mediation in conflicts that threaten the stability of societies and economies is one of the most important challenges of our time. Inspiring progress has been made in…

One of the many challenging aspects of mediating cross border cases is the fact that by definition, the parties tend to be in separate countries (and often the mediators too). One way of getting over this hurdle is by using one of the many information and communication technologies there are available these days. This month,…

I should begin this blog with a reservation and a disclaimer: in using the now-familiar “v3.0” description here, I don’t wish to suggest, as software or IT developers might, that what is involved here is a wholly new product and development. Indeed, as my colleagues Andrea Schneider and Howard Gadlin and I suggested in our…

A lot has been said about how to spread the mediation culture in Brazil. Undoubtedly, it is critical to improve the awareness of mediation as a useful tool in dispute resolution, targeting potential users and clients especially. These are the people who will select and recommend mediation to solve disputes and lawyers are probably the…

Last year, I wrote about the Peacemakers’ Initiative and talked a little about its intent, objectives and effect. This year, I want to provide readers, by way of update, a development that is both touching and an indication that things are on the right track. To set the context, the Peacemakers’ Conference is an initiative…

Co-Author Lughaidh Kerin, NUI Galway The School of Law, National University of Ireland, Galway hosted in association the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, NUIG and the Irish Centre for International Family Mediation a Conference on Mediation in Cases of International Family Conflict and Child Abduction on a typically damp Saturday in May in the…

This is the final posting of a 3-part series. Previous posts in the series noted the gathering tempest being whipped up by opacity in ADR practice. How can structural change help the ship steer towards modernity? User demand for more information and higher professional standards in ADR is unequivocal. An international institution is needed to…

Part 1 of this post touched on rumblings for more transparency in arbitration. But there is more than the distant sound of thunder, and it’s coming closer. As arbitration and mediation are both highly competitive and fragmented fields, it is hard for providers to act collectively. Yet they must. The only forums where arbitration organizations…

On 25th and 26th June, the ICC and FIDIC (International Federation of Consulting Engineers: http://fidic.org/) hosted their annual conference in Paris. While most of the discussion was, understandably, concerned with either arbitration or adjudication – the latter involving primarily Disputes Boards (http://www.dbfederation.org/) acting under FIDIC contracts – mediation made an appearance at a number of…

UIA World Forum of Mediation Centres took part in Prague from Friday June 7 to Saturday June 8 20013. What are the newest developments mentioned during the symposium? The beginning of the June 2013 was affected by heavily floods that stroke in all the Czech Republic and that threatened the Czech capital Prague. By coincidence,…