The inspiration to write this article came from a film I watched recently – The Whale – starring Brendan Fraser, who plays an obese man leading an extremely sedentary life. In my opinion, his character’s (Charlie) physiognomy is one of the elements that captures the story narrative. Again, the inspiration to write the article, after…

Every year since 2004, this competition has brought together law students, coaches and mediation professionals from around the world. The competition provides the opportunity for the students to demonstrate and improve their negotiation skills, a subject not taught to undergraduates of my generation. It also brings together numerous mediation professionals in a collegiate environment. In…

My participation in the Singapore Convention Week (SC Week, August 2022), at the invitation of the Singapore Minister of Justice and the UNCITRAL Academy, has raised my awareness about the advantages of co-mediation. As I mentioned in my previous post, among several relevant topics discussed on our panel , the one related to the benefits…

Today’s mediation scenario embraces a wide range of circumstances in which disputants of all kinds find themselves engaging with a mediator. Once it became apparent to lawyers and arbitrators that mediation could not be dismissed as a passing fancy, judges in various jurisdictions who were concerned to improve the judicial system to make it “just,…

At a recent Global Ethical Finance Initiative event Katherine Trebeck of the Wellbeing Economy Alliance discussed her book ‘The Economics of Arrival’. The book explores the contribution of economic growth to wellbeing, particularly in the context of developed economies who could be considered to have ‘arrived’. It makes the argument that beyond a certain threshold,…

One of the great professional satisfactions of being part of the mediation community is that it sits within a much wider cluster of non-adjudicative processes. This proximity to a broader cluster represents an opportunity for learning, experiment and the exercise of curiosity and investigation. In Australia, the cluster of which mediation is a part  includes…

Mediators work hard to help parties to a dispute to explore and understand their underlying needs and interests, which might have been forgotten or overlooked in the defence of a position that was once adopted to promote their interests. A recent book by political scientist Krzysztof Pelc ‘Beyond Self-interest – why the market rewards those…

Last month I had the pleasure to participate in the Singapore Convention Week (SC Week 2022), at the invitation of the Singapore Minister of Justice and the UNCITRAL Academy. To them, my deepest gratitude for the invitation which made mevery honored and proud. Singapore was the 14th country I visited as a Speaker / Panelist…

‘Entangled Life’ by Merlin Sheldrake is a fascinating look into the role that fungi play in making the natural world what it is. From the impact on humans to the symbiotic relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and trees. The relationship between humans, plants and fungi is also the focus of the Welcome Collection’s current exhibition ‘Rooted…

Mr Rimsky Yuen GBM SC JP was appointed as the Secretary for Justice of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (“Hong Kong Government”) on 1 July 2012. Prior to July 2012, Rimsky practised as a barrister primarily in different areas of commercial law. Apart from acting as advocate in court or arbitral proceedings, he…