As this is my first post to the new Kluwer Mediation Blog I thought it appropriate to take a moment to introduce myself and provide a brief summary of my background and experience. My intent is that this will assist the reader (clients, lawyers, other mediators, academics, students and innocent bystanders who have chanced upon…
As an effect of the Romanian Mediation Law and the EU Directive, for the past years, the mediation profession is growing exponentially in Romania. To date, seven or eight thousand mediators took the basic training and almost three thousand became authorized by the Romanian Mediation Council while the other five thousand were mainly interested in…
The economic challenges facing society have finally hit the civil justice system. Courthouses have seen huge cutbacks, and San Francisco has all but shutdown civil jury trials. No one thought this was going to happen to such a venerable institution as the jury system, but in these difficult times, nothing is sacred. Reduced budgets translate…
I just returned from (mostly) sunny Brisbane, Australia running a pilot program (5 to 6 September 2011) on intercultural mediation competencies for the International Mediation Institute before speaking at LEADR’s conference “kon gres” (7 to 9 September 2011). It was an honour to be training with Professor Hal Abramson (Touro Law School) and Ms. Gigi…
The other day my friend and fellow mediator, Jill Howieson, was showing me pictures of gaps in buildings. Now, these are neither accidental gaps nor defects in buildings. Rather these gaps are very deliberate; they form an essential element of construction design. They are the famous architectural gaps of architect Carlo Scarpa. Scarpa was well-known…
Patent wars are a perennial hot topic with not only IP experts being familiar with stories of well-known patent disputes. A classic example is perhaps the story of the Wright brothers, who received a patent for their method of flight control in 1906 and fiercely defended it for years afterward, by suing other aviators and…
Most mediators are pragmatists. This may not be our reputation, but in reality we wrestle daily with practical matters such as who will do what, when they will do it and how much it will cost. I once taught mediation to a group of therapists. Their ‘soft’ skills (this doesn’t mean easy) were fantastic, actively…
On May 16, 2011, the Swiss Supreme Court confirmed a previous ruling on the content and interpretation of a dispute resolution clause that provided for a conciliation attempt prior to resorting to arbitration (decision No. 4A_46/2011, X GmbH v. Y Sàrl, accessible here in French). The clause at stake was drafted as follows (free translation…
When do mediators get to talk to one another? There are of course various conferences. They produce a lot of useful papers and discussions but time is short. Co-mediators get to talk a little but it is usually about the issue at hand. Even mediators who work in a mediation practice are off mediating and…
One of the things I value most highly about my mediation practice is the trust that is put in me by the people with whom I work. The parties to a mediation will tell me about their hopes, wishes and fears within a conflict, and will trust me to keep these to myself. It is…
