Shows forms of dispute resolution and the thick line between mediation and arbitration

Law students are probably familiar with a diagram like the one above. It arranges different ways of resolving disputes according to how much say parties have in the outcome. Much as Felstiner and colleagues (1) famously described disputes being transformed into court cases through ‘naming, blaming and claiming,’ this graphic illustrates a parallel transformation in…

On July 12, 2021 the UK Civil Justice Council published its Report on Compulsory ADR . It considered first whether parties to a civil dispute in England and Wales may be compelled to participate in an ADR process. As to this question, it will be recalled that, in the Court of Appeal decision in Halsey…

Less than you might think, according to Sir Geoffrey Vos, the newly-appointed Master of the Rolls. The Master of the Rolls is responsible for the administration of civil justice in England & Wales. Sir Geoffrey was sworn in to this post in January 2021. He has spoken several times since then about his vision for…

At a lunch at Globe House, Temple Place in London in early 2006 on a balcony overlooking the Thames, the host, Michael Leathes, then an in-house corporate counsel with some years of user experience in mediation and the arb-med hybrid, asked me and the others present – Jeremy Lack, Tina Monberg, Miryana Nešić and Irena…

To paraphrase a worldwide cliché, you wait decades for a Mediation Act and two come along at once. On this typically dreich Scottish summer afternoon I find myself in the surprising position of examining two distinct proposals for mediation legislation. Why surprising? This blog has carried news of a succession of mediation acts in countries…

Romanian mediators are called on the 2nd and the 3rd of March 2019 to vote for the election of the members of the Romanian Mediation Council. Nine members and three alternates of the Mediation Council 2019-2023 will be elected for a four-year term by 4821 mediators that are authorized for practice in Romania. At the…

The European Commission has recently published a consultation document on the ‘Prevention and amicable resolution of disputes between investors and public authorities within the single market’. Industry associations, practitioners (e.g. lawyers, arbitrators, and mediators), civil society organizations, as well other citizens and organizations are invited to submit their contributions through an online questionnaire by November…

In November 2013, the Ministry of Law Working Group on International Commercial Mediation delivered its report on developing international commercial mediation in Singapore. Amongst the key recommendations in this report were the creation of a mediation service provider for international matters (the Singapore International Mediation Centre), the creation of a mediation accreditation body (the Singapore…

The year 2016 has so far been a significant one for Singapore in the area of ADR. The opening of the Singapore Legal Year saw the Chief Justice of Singapore, Mr. Sundaresh Menon introducing various ADR-related initiatives in family justice cases and medical malpractice matters. This has been explored in a previous blog entry here….

We have quite a heavy topic before us, but before we get into the weightiness of it, I’d like to begin with something more light-hearted. There is a TV commercial going around which begins with flashes of hard-hitting questions such as: what is the age of the universe? What is the meaning of life? Etc….