Developing the Field

Court Procedure and Litigation, Developing the Field, Future of mediation, Legal Issues, Mandatory mediation, Mediation Outcomes, Mediation Practice, Mediation Schemes (In Courts, etc.), Mediation Users/Clients, Policy, Practical Challenges for Mediators, Public Policy, Uncategorized, Understanding mediation

(University of Strathclyde)/ /13 Comments
Graffiti commenting on truth and its usefulness today

I started mediating in my early 30s, surely old enough to know the difference between truth and fiction. Yet after a couple of years I began to say, first to myself then to my friends, that the concept of truth was ‘no longer useful’ in my work. What did I mean and how did I…

ADR, Australia, Commercial Mediation, Conflict, Creativity, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Interests, International commercial mediation, lawyers in mediation, Mediation Practice, mediation process, Reflective practise, Skills, Training, Uncategorized

(University of New South Wales)/ /13 Comments

  The International Commercial Mediation Competition made a brave online appearance this year – the 16th year in which the ICC has delivered the most important competition of its kind in the world. For 15 of these 16 years it has been my privilege to be part of this experience as the coach for my…

Developing the Field, Future of mediation, Growth of the Field (Challenges, New Sectors, etc.), mediation as a career, Mediation Practice, Mediation Schemes (In Courts, etc.), Mentoring, Reflective Practice, Reflective practise, Scotland, Training, Uncategorized

(University of Strathclyde)/ /Leave a comment
University of Strathclyde, host to Learning by Doing, mediation clinic conference

By the everyday miracle of Zoom, Carrie Menkel-Meadow spoke from her LA office to a Glasgow conference with a worldwide audience. Wrapping up ‘Learning by Doing,’ the UK’s first conference devoted to mediation clinics, her keynote described the inspiration for a whole career: a colleague in her legal aid office in the 1970s. While Carrie…

Accreditation, Developing the Field, Ethics, Experience, Experts, Growth of the Field (Challenges, New Sectors, etc.), Instinct, Mediators’ Conduct, Surveys, Training, Values and attributes of a mediator

(Strategic Resolution)/ /2 Comments

Given the confidential nature of mediation, it is a rare set of circumstances that allow us to catch a glimpse into the mediator’s craft. The current review of the professional standards governing Australia’s accredited mediators provides one such opportunity, The review seeks, to the extent permissible, to uncover what practitioners are actually doing, including the…

Book Review, Commercial Mediation, Conventional wisdom, cross-border mediation, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Enforcement, EU Directive on Mediation, Europe, Fear, Framing, Future of mediation, International Mediation, mediated settlement agreement, Mediation Practice, Mediation Reforms (Legislation, etc.), Neuroscience, Promoting Mediation, Public Policy, Role of Mediator, Settlement Agreements, Singapore Convention on Mediation, Uncategorized, Understanding mediation

(Core Solutions Group)/ /7 Comments

Anna Howard’s first book, ‘EU Cross-Border Commercial Mediation: Listening to Disputants – Changing the Frame; Framing the Changes’ (published by Kluwer), is an important contribution to the literature about the practice and promotion of mediation. It deserves a wide readership among academics and practitioners alike and I hope that potential readers will not be deflected…

COVID-19, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Future of mediation, Online Dispute Resolution (ODR), Technology, Zoom

(Waseda University)/ /1 Comment

The Street of a Thousand Blossoms by Gail Tsukiyama tells the story of a family living in Tokyo over 30 years. Two brothers, one a sumo wrestler and the other a maker of Noh theater masks, are forced to adapt their lives to changes in society in order to succeed in their traditional professions. In an…

Developing the Field, General, Singapore, Singapore Convention on Mediation

(National University of Singapore, Faculty of Law)/ /Leave a comment

Note: This was co-authored with Samuel Teo and I would like to acknowledge his significant contributions to the preparation of this entry. In past entries, I have highlighted a peer mediation initiative called the Peacemakers Conference which seeks to teach 13-16 year olds how to resolve conflicts amicably in a workshop cum competition format. As…

ADR, Causes of Conflict, Conflict, Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Framing, Mediation Practice, mediation process

(University of New South Wales)/ /14 Comments

Covid is the gift that keeps on giving. It has provided a wonderful focus for blame that has let us off the hook for a lot of things. It has coincided with significant changes in our mediation experiences and again has been seized on as the culprit when mediation sessions go ‘off piste’. The new…

Communication, Decision making, Developing the Field, Dialogue, Language, Mediation Practice, mediation process, Philosophy, Skills, The role of the mediator, Uncategorized

(University of Strathclyde)/ /2 Comments
What mediators do with words

‘The world is made, not found’ (W. Barnett Pearce) (1) I just spent an intensive weekend on Zoom with my students, helping them navigate their early steps into mediation practice. So much has changed. I have never met most of them face to face; we sit at home on our screens; there are no coffee…

Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, Language, mediation traditions, Negotiation, Reform, Research

(University of Missouri Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution)/ /Leave a comment

In 2015, I retired as an American law professor. For most of my career, I used some of the basic concepts of our field such as negotiation, BATNA, positional vs. interest-based negotiation, and facilitative vs. evaluative mediation. I wasn’t always comfortable with these terms, but I used them because I couldn’t imagine shifting to alternatives….