Notice has recently gone out of a report and recommendations of a Working Group appointed to review the practicality of an International Mediation Center in Singapore. The news release, available here, explains that the recommendations include the establishment of a new service provider limited to mediation of cross-border disputes; the...
A reminder was recently received of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section's 11th Annual Advanced Mediation and Advocacy Institute at the Omni Hotel in Nashville, TN, on November 21-22, 2013....
The ABA Dispute Resolution Section will again observe "Mediation Week" on October 14-18, 2013, encouraging local events and teaching sessions to foster the use of mediation in various contexts. Attorney Peter V. Arcese has assembled a panel of mediators including myself, Patrick Westerkamp and Eunice Salton to a discussion on...
Our Italian correspondent, Avv. Giorgio Grasso, has prepared a useful report on the reintroduction of mandatory civil and commercial mediation in Italy. The new legislation -- replacing a 2010 version that prompted a lawyers' strike and was declared unconstitutional in 2012 -- amends the scope of the original scheme and is...
The American Arbitration Association has issued new Commercial Arbitration Rules effective October 1, 2013. The changes seem designed to better serve disputants and enhance the commercial rationality of arbitration under the AAA's auspices. As to be expected from the AAA, they are elegant and reflect the thinking of many stakeholders....
There seems to be a presumption that being a mediator implicates public policy, and that the practice of mediation needs to be somehow regulated for the public good. In my region, for example, one must demonstrate training, skills or both in order to be listed on various court-annexed mediation panels. At...
The ADR Committee of the ABA Trial, Tort and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) sponsors a periodic series of telephonic programs on the Psychology of Conflict Resolution. The programs are organized and moderated by San Francisco mediator Elizabeth Bader, a professional of wide-ranging gifts whose friendship I and many others value...