When building the Brazilian capital, Brasilia, in the fifties, Juscelino Kubitschek’s expression “50 years in 5” became famous. He was referring to the country’s expected development. Maybe a sort of analogy – ten years in one – could be used to describe the recent developments in alternative dispute resolution in Brazil. If compared to other…

Motivated by the desire to ensure that the dialogue on standards for mediators is informed and underpinned by research, the Mediators’ Institute of Ireland, the professional body for mediators in Ireland commissioned a piece of research on skills and behaviours in workplace mediation in 2015. The success of this project and the value of the…

11 January 2016 saw the opening of the Singapore Legal Year. As is tradition, the Chief Justice of Singapore, Mr. Sundaresh Menon delivered his address to the legal fraternity. In his address, there were a number of initiatives relating to mediation which the writer would like to provide readers an update on. The Chief Justice…

The last day of the year is referred to, in Scotland, as Hogmanay. Hogmanay has for centuries, been a cause for celebration. Many traditions are associated with it, though the ubiquitous singing of ‘Auld Lang Syne’, is fairly recent, having been written by Robert Burns in 1788. One of the more important customs is the…

Mediation Awareness Week in Ireland! 19th -23rd October 2015 In most jurisdictions, when people find themselves dispute, they think “I’ll phone my lawyer”. This is certainly the case in Ireland. When faced with marriage breakdown, a breach of contract, an employment issue, the default port of call is still legal proceedings, and people make an…

In 2006 Frank Sander produced his ‘Mediation Receptivity Index'(22 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, 599-618). The MRI would be a way of discerning the extent of ‘mainstreaming’ or ‘institutionalization’ of mediation in different US states. It doesn’t seem to have caught on, but among the questions Sander lists are: PROVIDERS – number of professional…