Globally, the political landscape is currently heated up and does not seem to be abating soon! All but two of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are gearing up for leadership changes this year and the pressure of election almost dictates the world’s socio-political space. China is in a transition with leadership…

It´s about the students and they did themselves proud with South Texas College of Law taking out the magnificent glass trophy – goodness knows how they got it past security at Charles de Gaulle.  Bar Ilan University (Israel) was runner up and there was not much in it. The beautiful people of the mediation world were…

After five days of intense competition between 66 teams from 32 countries, the ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition finished yesterday in Paris. The South Texas College of Law (USA) came in first, and the Bar Ilan University (Israel) was the runner-up. In the semifinals both teams beat off their competitors: the University of New South…

The recent decision in Gao Hai Yan & Anor v Keeneye Holdings Ltd & Others [2011] HKEC 514, (the “wining and dining” mediation case) has generated a considerable amount of interest in the murky depths of the Arbitration-Mediation (“Arb-Med”) facility. Practitioners and academics are still engaged in deep discourse nearly two months after the case…

Picking up where I left off last post, I want to discuss what I consider to be a major problem with the Ontario Commercial Mediation Act, 2010 (OCMA) relating to the admissibility of evidence of what occurred during a mediation. Generally (with some exceptions) at Common Law anything said or done in mediation is inadmissible…

The ICC International Commercial Mediation Competition is the only moot I know of devoted to international commercial mediation and it will take place in Paris in early February. It’s an annual event organized by the International Chamber of Commerce and has become the best excuse to travel to Paris, drink coffee and eat pastries on the…

No one expected that the implementation of the EU Mediation Directive would come about easily(1). The recent report from the European Parliament on the implementation of the EU Mediation Directive attests to the difficulties encountered by Member States in implementing the Directive(2). The Report illustrates the uphill battle faced by the mediation community as a…

Yep, it’s been an up-and-down month.  More down than up if I’m honest. But hey! I’ve done enough of these things to know that my old Dad was right all those years ago when we’d stand at the top of a black run and he’d say “Laddie, if you’re not falling down, you aren’t skiing…

Hong Kong is the global city of designer ‘labels’ as even the most reluctant of shoppers cannot fail to observe. It is also the city of fakes – fakes with labels and fakes without labels – and the place where the ‘No Fake’ label and the ‘No Label’ label thrive! Confused? Well don’t worry, Hong…