It is trite that developing trust with parties and as between the parties is a vital part of the mediation process and what makes it work. This is of course easier said than done. I have previously written on trust in “Trusting Thoughts” (12 August 2012) and “More Reflections on Trust” (14 August 2015). I…
Twice today I’ve found myself responding to mediator reflections in these terms: the money’s not about the money. Both cases involved financial negotiation, even haggling, but that’s deceptive. The key to settlement lay not in the realm of calculation and rationality but in the more opaque social world of face, punishment, justice and emotion. In…
If the natural resources of the planet and its capacity to cope with our waste are finite, is it reasonable for mediators to be encouraging people to search for positive sum solutions which can benefit all parties to a negotiation? If you can achieve a win-win in one case could it, on a global scale,…
What to write about this month? There is a lot on the go: General Election in the UK, Citizens Assembly in Scotland, Climate Change reports predicting the worst. What about mediation? That is an interesting question. I have been asked recently to act as an independent third party in two significant matters where the parties…
I had planned, indeed had partly written, the usual form of blog for this month. It was to be a further comment on access to dispute resolution and justice, picking up on Zbynek Loebl’s recent blog on developments in ODR, and my own recent participation in a Forum on digital inclusion, hosted by the Department…
People have very good reasons not to want to enter into dialogue with each other over conflict (with or without mediation). By this, I am not considering the rational choice that a dispute or conflict is “not suited” to mediation since the chances of a better outcome without amicable resolution are deemed higher. It is…
Holidays are a wonderful thing. Not only are they a great opportunity to step outside the obligations and scheduling of daily life, they open the space where the bigger picture lives. And so it was for me in my lovely apartment at the top of the cliff in Riomaggiore on the Cinque Terre in Italy….
Online mediators are increasingly in demand in the first online state courts. However, with the inevitable emergence of artificial intelligence-aided online courts, what will the future role of these mediators be? What is the difference between online dispute resolution (“ODR”) and state online courts? The short answer is none. Only a few years ago ODR…
“Does the United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (“Singapore Convention”) apply to investor-state disputes?” This intriguing question was deliberated recently at George Washington University Law School by a star-studded panel comprising of the Hon’ble Judge Charles N. Brower (Twenty Essex Street Chambers, London), Ms. Frauke Nitschke (Legal Counsel, ICSID) and Mr….
“Impasse” – a situation in which no progress is possible, especially because of disagreement; a deadlock. Last time I focused on impasse in mediation, I noted that in my experience as a commercial mediator, impasse most often flows from a combination of cognitive biases and flawed risk assessments. This post suggests ways mediators can…
