Essays on Mediation: Dealing with Disputes in the 21st Century

Global Trends in Dispute Resolution Series Volume 6

Essays on Mediation explores the practical uses of mediation and contemplates the power of both the oldest and the newest form of dispute resolution. Across a range of jurisdictions, in differing legal systems, mediation is achieving ever greater institutional and statutory force, and what not long ago was a marginal technique for dispute resolution is now becoming mainstream and orthodox (with the arrival, for example, of the International Mediation Institute as a standards body). Nevertheless how firm a sense do we have about the social formation we call ‘mediation’? Through reflections and case histories, this distinctive collection of essays by experienced mediators from across the globe provides a clearer understanding than we have had heretofore of what mediation is and what it can offer as a practical, accessible, and positive alternative in civil justice systems.

What’s in this book:

The authors address the ways in which mediation has been, or can be, applied to dispute resolution in such pressing contexts as the following:

• enduring and intense conflicts;
• planning and environmental issues;
• conflicts arising between refugee and ‘host’ communities;
• care of the elderly;
• intercultural settings;
• online communication;
• science-based disputes; and
• public policy disputes.

This book further elaborates on how mediation developed in different contexts and how it works in intercultural settings, as well as in intense and international conflicts. The role of mediation and mediators in assisting wider collaborative dialogue for civil justice challenges is discussed. The questions raised, such as identifying unmet needs, improving the provision of services, fostering an ongoing conversation on mediation and access to justice, go well beyond the confines of commercial dispute resolution and the walls of courtrooms.

How this will help you:

Through the practical experiences described by key practitioners and authors from a range of jurisdictions, this book aims to bring about a moment of both a professional and a philosophical reflection on the state of mediation. The useful and insightful perspectives of diverse fields of application and practice of mediation enable practitioners to become thoroughly conversant with the current state and contemporary relevance of mediation. This recognition of deep roots and contemporary relevance of mediation outlines the promise and potential of the powerful resources that mediation and mediators can bring to the table; this book will be a welcome addition to this topic by legal practitioners and jurists, as well as academics.

Editor

Contributors

Acknowledgement

Essays on Mediation: Introduction

Ian Macduff

Chapter 1        ‘Mediation: Elephant or Heffalump?’

Kevin Avruch

Chapter 2     Remembrance of Pleasures Past: Reflections of a Practitioner

Howard Gadlin

Chapter 3     The Future of Mediation Worldwide: Legal and Cultural Variations in the Uptake of or Resistance to Mediation

Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Chapter 4     Two Failed Mediations and the Lessons Learnt from Them

Michael Hwang

Chapter 5     Challenging the Status Quo

John Sturrock QC

Chapter 6     Elder Mediation: Context, Opportunities and Challenges

Dale Bagshaw

Chapter 7     Munich, Majors and Mediation

Peter Wallensteen

Chapter 8     Collaborative Dispute Resolution Assistance for Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons and Host Communities

Christopher Moore

Chapter 9        The Roles of Culture: Muslim Country Leaders, NGOs, and European Small-Country Leaders as International Mediators in Southeast Asia

Bruce E. Barnes

Chapter 10   Rocks On The Road: Inside the Pandora’s Box of Culture

Peter S. Adler

Chapter 11   Social Mediation Forms in France

J.-P. Bonafé-Schmitt

Chapter 12   Embedding Mediation and Dispute Resolution into Statutory Civil Law: The Example of Germany

Thomas Trenczek & Serge Loode

Chapter 13   The HOW and the WHAT: Precise Conflict Resolution in Complex Processes through the Example of the Mediation, “Zukunft Landwehrkanal Berlin” (Future Landwehrkanal Berlin)

Beate Voskamp & Stefan Kessen

Chapter 14   Digital Conflict and Digital Justice

Ethan Katsh & Orna Rabinovich-Einy

Chapter 15   Leaving Disputants to their Own Devices: The Vulnerable Potential of Mobile Access to Justice

Ian Macduff

Chapter 16   The Alchemy of Mediation: Aesthetic Wisdom for a Fragmented Age

Nadja Alexander & Michelle LeBaron

Index