Mediation and conflict management often require the design of complex processes that might involve different interventions with different parties or stakeholders over considerable time. Consider mediation in the planning stages of public projects or mediation and facilitation involving communities involved in claims for compensation against governments or companies. Or consider mediation inside organisations, in which…

The Singapore Convention on Mediation makes clear that international mediated settlement agreements (iMSAs) may be used as a sword or invoked as a shield in judicial or arbitral proceedings (defence). In the post-Singapore Convention world, lawyers are looking closely at the extent to which courts may recognise settlement agreements, especially mediated settlement agreements, as a…

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…

Two days ago I attended a birthday party – one of Germany’s most active consumer conciliation bodies celebrated its ten-year anniversary. There was an interesting panel discussion on the role of consumer conciliation in Germany and in Europe, particularly given that the European Union has attempted to promote this service through its DIRECTIVE 2013/11/EU on…

  Kindergarten and conflict – Pre-school leadership in conflict resolution. Becoming a devoted Grandma has been a surprising and enriching learning experience for me. The early childhood teaching and learning regime in Australia (and across the world) is truly remarkable and is revolutionising how children engage with the world. An important element of this is…

Over the past decade, the concept of resolving international investment disputes through mediation has gained traction among States, practitioners and academics. This is seen in the significant number of recent investment treaties that refer to mediation either as a pre-condition to arbitration, or as a stand-alone mechanism for resolving disputes. Support for mediation is also…

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…

People have very good reasons not to want to enter into dialogue with each other over conflict (with or without mediation). By this, I am not considering the rational choice that a dispute or conflict is “not suited” to mediation since the chances of a better outcome without amicable resolution are deemed higher. It is…

Online mediators are increasingly in demand in the first online state courts. However, with the inevitable emergence of artificial intelligence-aided online courts, what will the future role of these mediators be? What is the difference between online dispute resolution (“ODR”) and state online courts? The short answer is none. Only a few years ago ODR…

Photo credit: Creative Commons Jean M.Mas 2/2007 Although my mediation training made no mention of it, 32 years of mediating have taught me that mediations generally unfold over two stages: Stage 1: “Who Did What to Whom”? Here parties (or their lawyers) follow the ritual of naming, blaming and claiming – recounting facts, providing evidence…