“The ground is so wet; it wasn’t like this in the past. We can’t get started on this year’s soil preparation.” In a recent mediation involving farmers, this was the response to my early inquiry about how things were going, generally. These days, I find that the topic of climate change and its effects arises,…

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…

The fairytale of mediation in Greece starts in 2008. Back then, a group of forward thinkers (or disillusioned persons, depending on the angle of the view) took the first class on mediation in Greece (organised by CIArb) and a little later, they received the CIArb accreditation. A few more persons of the same mindset took…

Stop apologising

(This blog is adapted from a longer version published by Prof John Lande as part of Theories of Change for the Dispute Resolution Movement: Actionable Ideas to Revitalize Our Movement. The Theory of Change symposium asked mediators and scholars to think big about their dreams and visions for the future, and was recently published on…

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…

The start of a new decade offers a great opportunity to reflect and plan. There is a growing consensus that the 2020s will be crucial in transforming the way we live and work if we are to have any chance of ensuring the planet is able to accommodate our species. Nearly everything we do is…

Update: As this post was published, the Singapore Convention Bill was passed into law. In previous blog entries, we have outlined the provisions of the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (also known as the Singapore Convention on Mediation), reported on its signing ceremony and observed that more than 50 States…

Recently, I had the privilege of facilitating a session at Scotland’s Citizens Assembly at which politicians from four political parties took the opportunity to discuss with the Assembly members (over 100 people randomly recruited from across Scotland) their vision for the future of the country. At the outset, I framed it as a departure from…

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…