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ADR, Clients, Commercial Mediation, Court Procedure and Litigation, Developing the Field, Domestic Courts, Due Process, Efficiency, EU Directive on Mediation, EU Mediation Directive, Europe, European Law, Future of mediation, General, Governments/Public Sector, Growth of the Field (Challenges, New Sectors, etc.), harmonisation of mediation law, International Mediation, Lawyers, Legislation, Litigation, Mediation Reforms (Legislation, etc.), Mediation Schemes (In Courts, etc.), Mediation Users/Clients, National Mediation Laws, Public Policy, Uncategorized

(ADR Center)/ /Leave a comment

The recent publication of a study conducted for the European Parliament on Mediation, “Rebooting the Mediation Directive,” has contributed to the ongoing debate about effective mediation policy. I am the coordinator of that Study, whose results were based on 816 questionnaires completed by respondents from the 28 member states of the EU. The Study determined…

Arbitration, Decision making, General, International Mediation, Med-Arb Clauses, Mediation Practice, Mediation Users/Clients, Policy, Public Policy, Reform, Settlement Agreements

(Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy)/ /1 Comment

How do you get people to eat more fruit and less junk food? How do you get more people to agree to donate their organs? How do you get more people to engage in cross-border mediation? I’ll come back to food and organs shortly. Let’s stay with mediation for a minute. Within Asia, Hong Kong,…

Developing the Field, Dispute Resolution, General, Growth of the Field (Challenges, New Sectors, etc.), Negotiation

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

Author’s Note: For those readers who do not speak or read Chinese, the words and numbers in brackets indicate how to pronounce and intonate the Chinese characters indicated I was recently given the honour of launching 谈判 (Tan2 Pan4): The Chinese-English Journal on Negotiation at the 3rd Asian Mediation Association Conference held in Hong Kong…

Apologies, Apology, Clients, Confidentiality, General, Ireland, Lawyers, Mediation Outcomes, Success in mediation

(Sabine Walsh Mediation)/ /Leave a comment

The last few weeks have seen a failure to apologise result in a political crisis, a senior police official being forced to resign, and our Minister for Justice’s already wobbly pedestal threaten to give way entirely beneath him. The coming weeks and months will tell whether the “Minister for Borrowed Time” as he has become…

Appointment of Mediators, Conflict, Conventional wisdom, Cross-cultural, General, insider and outsider mediators, Instinct, International Mediation, Mediation Practice, mediation traditions, Mediation Users/Clients, Neutrality, peace negotiations, UN and International Organizations, Understanding mediation, War Stories

(Bill Marsh Mediator)/ /3 Comments

Recently my good friend Canon Andrew White (aka “the Vicar of Baghdad”, as he is the Anglican priest at St George’s Church, Baghdad) convened a meeting of religious certain leaders from Iraq and Israel, bringing together senior Iraqi Muslim and Israeli Jewish figures in Cyprus for several days of talks about peace. It was by…

Communication, Conflict, General, Governments/Public Sector, Mediation Outcomes, Mediation Practice, Mediators’ Conduct, Negotiation, peace negotiations, Stages of mediation, Stories, Success in mediation, Switzerland, Transformation

(Bill Marsh Mediator)/ /10 Comments

Like many of us, I listened with rapt attention to the reporting from Geneva of the Syrian peace talks last week. So much is at stake. And so much of it feels very familiar to me as a mediator. One particularly interesting item was a radio interview last Saturday with a Syrian media officer who…

Efficiency, General, Mediators’ Conduct

(Mediar360 - Dispute Resolution )/ /1 Comment

Recently, one of the greatest maestros of our time passed away: Italian conductor Claudio Abbado. He led some of the most prestigious classical music institutions in the twentieth century. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and principal conductor of the Berlin…

ADR, Dispute Resolution, General

(Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy)/ /Leave a comment

Dear Readers, Welcome to 2014. In Hong Kong and the rest of the Chinese world this time of year represents a special type of temporality between the Western and Chinese New Year’s celebrations. This week, when people are wishing me a Happy New Year, I cannot be sure whether they referring to 1 January which…

Availability of Mediators, Causes of Conflict, Civil rights, Conflict, Conventional wisdom, General, History of mediation, Impasse, Instinct, Mediation Practice, mediation traditions

(Bill Marsh Mediator)/ /7 Comments

My December blog was centred around a 15th Century occurrence. This month, I am in the final two years of the 14th Century. Last night, I went to see Shakespeare’s Richard II at the Barbican Theatre in London. The title role was played (quite brilliantly) by David Tennant – a piece of trivia for all…

Below the line, Commercial Mediation, Communication, Confidentiality, Confidentiality and Transparency, conlfict coaching, Conventional wisdom, Creativity, Developing the Field, Ethics, Future of mediation, General, Instinct, Interests, Language, Lawyers, Mediation Lawyering, mediation models, Mediation Practice, Mistakes, Skills, Stages of mediation, Uncategorized, Understanding mediation, War Stories

(Brick Court Chambers / Clifton Chambers)/ /5 Comments

This is where I did my best work in Christmas week – in the twilight zone between the joint session room to the right of the water cooler and the private caucus room off to the left by the green bins. Corridors can be furtive and risky spaces on mediation days – ‘don’t ask me…