Negotiating in Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar is an experience to relish. I’ve recently returned from three days in that wonderful city, helping lawyers, judges and mediators to expand the use of mediation in commercial disputes, inspired by the excellent work there led by Asiyan Suleymanoglu and her colleagues. Working with one of the pioneers of mediation…
This comment has its origins in two events, separated by distance and utterly different in origin and impact, yet still linked by a common theme. This is also a partial continuation of the conversation started by Martin Svatos in the preceding entry: http://kluwermediationblog.com/2015/11/22/je-suis-paris-do-the-mediators-have-right-to-be-xenophobic/ One event, front and centre in our media and in the lives…
One week after the terrorists’ assaults in Paris, one may have witnessed a whole scale of different responds to this terrible tragedy: From the manifestation of solidarity and fraternity to the expression of hatred and collective responsibility judgements. The later is alerting, especially when you can see it among the dispute resolution professionals. Do mediators…
When I had to take the civil procedure exam during my law studies in Poland, the provisions concerning mediation were already there. It was hard to find many judgments or commentaries on them and, true story, when I tried to search for any materials on the Internet, the search engine displayed: Did you mean meditation?…
I would like to do something a little different from the usual monthly blog entry. I have in previous entries (July 2012 and July 2013) written about a peer mediation initiative that was the brainchild of my friend Aloysius Goh. The general idea is to teach 13-16 year olds how to resolve conflicts amicably in…
I’ll start with a story. Bear with me as it unfolds. I’ll discuss the learning later. Here goes: The door closed behind me and I descended the stairs. I often take the stairs in hotels to get some exercise. Sometimes, the stairs combine as a fire exit. But you can (nearly) always get out at…
Stream of consciousness is an amazing proof of mysteriousness of human thinking. So for instance, some thoughts on impertinence of email spammers may remind you to post on Kluwer Mediation Blog results of the Summer Mediation Game. On the first sight, those topics are not related. As you may see in the following lines, they…
“Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” (V. Hugo) Slightly over a year ago, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) started working on an instrument to address enforcement of conciliated settlement agreements. Conceived as a mediation equivalent of the 1958 New York Convention, the proposed instrument would put…
In February 2015, the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution organized and ran the Asia Pacific International Mediation Summit in New Delhi, India. I had the honour of presenting at a number of sessions at the summit and I would like to explore one of those sessions in this month’s entry. I was part…
When someone asks me to explain what mediation is, I often find it easier to tell them what it is not. Sometimes I will start by asking them if they are familiar with litigation or arbitration, and use those modes of dispute resolution as a point of comparison. I often see workshops and seminars introduce…
