Mediation has long been used as a method of resolving disputes. Indeed, the practice of combining mediation and arbitration by the same neutral has been traced back to ancient Greece and Ptolemaic Egypt[1]. In his paper “Varieties of Dispute Processing”, presented to the 1976 Pound Conference, Harvard Professor Frank E.A. Sander proposed that, instead of…

Are you doing it online? A lot? Regularly? Just sometimes? Do you talk to others about it or keep it mostly to yourself? And, if you do talk about it, do you just flippantly mention it as a throw-away line that everyone should hear or do you really engage in deep conversations about what it…

The launch of the Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Collaborative Framework by the Asia Pacific Economic Council (APEC) is set to incentivise and conceivably revolutionise commercial dispute resolution across APEC economies. In this posting we explore the Framework, how it works, and why it’s important. What does APEC’s ODR Collaborative Framework seek to achieve? With a…

Good Faith is part of the Mediator’s mantra. Our opening addresses are full of it and it is something we regularly remind parties and their lawyers is an important element in rebuilding fractured relationships and achieving durable resolution. But sometimes it becomes obvious that Good Faith is missing in action. A very useful new article…

Introduction This post provides an overview of legal aspects of mediation in Uzbekistan. It will start with some brief historical background information and proceed to the analysis of the Law “On Mediation”, other relevant laws and amendments that were made to facilitate the use of mediation in Uzbekistan. Historical Background The use of various dispute…

Introductory Remarks Nine years after the enactment of Law 3898/2010, which was the first piece of legislation to regulate mediation in Greece in compliance with Directive 2008/52/EC on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters, and almost one year and a half after its replacement by Articles 178-206 of Law 4512/2018, Law 4640/2019…

The United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, known as the Singapore Convention on Mediation (the “Singapore Convention”), was opened for signature on 7 August 2019. The Singapore Convention, hailed as the “missing piece” in the international dispute resolution enforcement framework, establishes a framework for the cross-border recognition and enforcement of settlement…

On 2 August 2019 the “3rd Asia Pacific Conference, Singapore Convention on Mediation: Strategies of China, Japan, Korea and Russia” was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea (Korea). The Conference centred on the Singapore Convention on Mediation [1] United Nations Convention on International Setlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation 2019 (UN, New York) (Singapore Convention), with…

Being a mediator brings surprises along the way. For me, I was presented with what turned out to be the biggest challenge of my professional career last November when the Cabinet Secretary for Health in Scotland appointed me to conduct a review of allegations made by staff (through whistle-blowers) of bullying and harassment in Scotland’s…

“Courts should be the alternative!” – is the slogan coined by the Minister of Justice of Georgia voicing the Government of Georgia’s will to promote the use of out-of-court mechanisms of dispute resolution. And this is not only for domestic disputes. The Government has declared its will to promote Georgia as a regional center for…