As the next installment in a series of essays on alternatives to interest-based negotiation, the Hawaiian practice of ho'oponopono is discussed. In this spiritually-influenced ritual, secular conflicts are identified, brought to the table, admitted, and forgiven, and the family group achieves reconciliation and forgiveness....
Over the transom from our good friends at the International Mediation Institute comes this announcement: The Inter-Cultural Taskforce of the IMI Independent Standards Commission (ISC), after a year of meetings and consultation, is publishing for comment Draft Criteria for the planned IMI Inter-Cultural Competency Certification of Mediators. Organisations approved by the ISC as an...
A recent post noted that Wang Cheng Jie, Secretary General of the Mediation Centers of the China Center for Promotion of International Trade, delivered an insightful and provocative presentation at the World Mediation Forum in Athens on March 12. Mr. Wang has kindly given permission for his remarks to appear on...
The 15th meeting of the UIA World Forum of Mediation Centers was held March 11-12 in Athens. About 130 people attended, many of them Greek attorneys, by far the largest assembly in this group's history. The meeting took place about a month after the enactment in Greece of a mediation law...
Attention must be paid to an important new publication from the Insurance Institute of London, Alternative Dispute Resolution in Practice. Written by a team of contributors (of which I am one) under the Chairmanship of Paul Moss of Montpelier Re, and assembled through the tireless efforts of General Editor Alex...
This post comes from the island of Luzon, in the Philippines, where a team from the Corporate Social Responsibility Project of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government has worked on a film documenting the tensions between operators of two hydroelectric dams and the communities that were inundated, destroyed and displaced during the...
Over the past years, many of us have been impressed by the limitations of both institutional dispute resolution systems (i.e., courts) and their alternatives (i.e., arbitration and mediation). At the same time, I've been increasingly drawn to examples found in certain societies whose shared spiritual beliefs have produced systems of dispute resolution that...