“The grandchildren put out a treble tongue, Law is the senses of the young” W H Auden, “Law like Love” “In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.” ― Czesław Miłosz (Polish-American poet, 1911-2004) A couple of months ago, our 15-year old granddaughter,…
For this blogpost I interviewed Lin Adrian, associate professor of mediation and director of the master’s in Mediation and Conflict Resolution at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Together with the master’s in Mediation and Conflict Management at the Viadrina European University in Frankfurt / Oder Germany, Lin conducted an empirical study on the effects of mediation…
Students make wonderful teachers. Some of the ‘aha’ moments I value most have come from debriefing de-identified mediation challenges (particularly the most painful ones) with my class – listening and learning as they unpick my stories of ‘successes’ and ‘failures’. It is a gift I look forward to receiving with each new group of students….
The Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy (SIDRA) released its International Dispute Resolution Survey: 2020 Final Report (‘2020 SIDRA Survey’) on 3 July. It is a compendium of the experiences and views of legal and client users from common and civil law jurisdictions on why and how they choose dispute resolution mechanisms to resolve cross-border disputes….
For readers who are new, the “Neuro-Linguist’s Toolbox” series is an ongoing series focused on using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) in our practice of amicable dispute resolution. The first section (with 6 entries) focused on rapport (the first of which can be found here). This second section focuses on matters of self-care and personal improvement for…
‘Because you’re distant, forgive me for being a little bit bossy’ (Paddy O’Connell, BBC Radio 4’s Broadcasting House) After plying their trade for a while mediators (and broadcasters) develop a persona, not so much bolted on as inhabited. Once in ‘the chair,’ voice, posture and gestures all coalesce to support their purpose and, with minimal…
Following up on a series of posts initiated last March associated to the Brazilian General Data Protection Act, the following article is co-authored by Gustavo Carneiro, a dear friend and expert on the subject matter. The Brazilian General Data Protection Act, which will come into force next August, sets up principles, duties and rights to…
One of the positive aspects of the enforced changes brought about by lockdown is that it enables – or compels – us to try new things. So far, I’ve learned how to create and have issued 13 podcasts, the idea being to spread ideas as widely as possible at this crucial time. After much procrastination,…
“The greatest single antidote to violence is conversation, speaking our fears, listening to the fears of others, and in that sharing of vulnerabilities discovering the genesis of hope. . . Conversation – respectful, engaged, reciprocal, calling forth some of our greatest powers of empathy and understanding – is the moral form of a world governed…
Paul Watzlawick’s well-known axiom “you cannot not communicate” has taken on a new relevance in recent months. It means that silence and other non-verbal behaviour are just as much a form of communication as what people say. We cannot switch the communication channel off, at least not if it is analogue – meaning continuous. Take…
