The Report on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on online dispute resolution for consumer disputes (Regulation on consumer ODR) (COM(2011)0794 – C7-0453/2011– 2011/0374(COD)) has been published by the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO) of the European Parliament. IMCO has been working on two legislative proposals…

Scotland is a practical nation. The list of its inventions includes penicillin, anaesthetics, steam engines, tarmac roads and even the decimal point (see http://www.magicdragon.com/Wallace/thingscot.html#Ta). Like the rest of the UK its culture was in part forged by the ‘practical man’ of the Industrial Revolution, rejecting grand theory in favour of trial and error. Its lawyers,…

Since April 2005 there have been two structural provisions for referral to mediation: via the Legal Desk and via the Judiciary. Besides, conflicting parties can start mediation on their own initiative or after referral by other bodies. Other referring bodies comprise, for instance, occupational health and safety services, social services, youth services, the police, social…

In the land of plenty (austerity packages) and decennial litigation fights, a new hope seems to emerge for the first time. Mediation is in the mouths of lawyers and the minds of academics. It is also part of the MoJ’s agenda since 2010. My objective is to present you the mediation landscape in Greece, and…

It´s about the students and they did themselves proud with South Texas College of Law taking out the magnificent glass trophy – goodness knows how they got it past security at Charles de Gaulle.  Bar Ilan University (Israel) was runner up and there was not much in it. The beautiful people of the mediation world were…

Quality standards for the mediator? What conditions are needed for the successful outcome of a mediation? Without parties’ commitment to really resolve the conflict and settle the case, no success is possible. So commitment of the parties is a sine qua non. Still, we must also look at the mediator, who may be essential for…

On December 15, 2011, the Act for the Promotion of Mediation and other Procedures of Extrajudicial Conflict Settlement (Gesetz zur Förderung der Mediation und anderer Verfahren der außergerichtlichen Konfliktbeilegung) was passed in the “lower chamber” of the German parliament (Deutscher Bundestag). The adoption of the Act was based on the recommendation of the Legal Committee…

No one expected that the implementation of the EU Mediation Directive would come about easily(1). The recent report from the European Parliament on the implementation of the EU Mediation Directive attests to the difficulties encountered by Member States in implementing the Directive(2). The Report illustrates the uphill battle faced by the mediation community as a…