“All of humanity’s problems stem from [one’s] inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal, Pensées We have done a lot of walking in recent weeks. As we approach the end of the extended “Level 4” of the Covid-19 lockdown in New Zealand, we look forward to only slightly lifted restrictions on…
I have been thinking about some aspects of listening recently. For quite a long while I have been listening to myself, trying to work out where I stand on the skill of listening, its use and its limits professionally in mediation, conflict management, and coaching, and privately, and also on my own needs to be…
In his recent Kluwer Mediation Blog “Is Zoom good enough for mediation?” Rick Weiler notes the recent security concerns that have been expressed regarding Zoom. He has set out a very useful list of tips for using the Zoom platform for mediation as safely as possible. Another platform well worth considering is MODRON Spaces. Developed…
If not “Covid-19”, then “Home Office” is going to be the topic of the year 2020. Apart from our family management skills, home office work first and foremost challenges our ability to communicate via long-distance means. Even before the pandemic, the increased awareness towards climate change had led to initiatives for a more intensive use…
Are agreements to mediate enforceable? The short (and incomplete) answer is: yes, they may be provided they are drafted appropriately. In this post we review a recent English judgment which sets outs guidelines for the enforceability of agreements to mediate under English law. In August 2019, the Technology and Construction Court of the Queen’s Bench…
Setting On the virtual veranda; sipping Introduction Adi: Hello Margaret. How are you in these interesting times?. Marg: I am well, thank you Adi. How are you? Adi: I’m finding I have a slower pace and what I think is higher productivity. Marg: I have been reflecting on our discussion about mediation and interests, as…
The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“the New York Convention”) makes a huge contribution to the success of international arbitration by providing tools for global enforcement of arbitral awards. To that end, international mediation has been underused because of the lack of necessary international enforcement mechanisms of mediated settlement agreements….
‘He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars’ (William Blake, Jerusalem) The coronavirus pandemic deals its cards very unevenly. Some individuals get it lightly, if at all, and even countries seem to be spared, at least for now. For others it’s a catastrophe. Here in the UK we watch, helpless,…
So ended a recent article in the FT by Martin Wolf on the economic response needed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. In it he argues that Governments acting in the collective interest must be the buyer of last resort as well as the lender of last resort to prevent the economy imploding as…
Events last Friday have resulted in a harrowing few days for we mediators forced to move our practice online as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve all been using Zoom. Zoom immediately emerged as the “go-to” platform for video mediation for the simple reason it offered “break-out rooms”, a function inexplicably absent in FaceTime,…
