The UIA has sponsored the World Mediation Forum every nine months since 2004. Alas, the gatherings were suspended after the meeting in Zurich in February 2020. Now it has resumed, and the 30th Forum was held in Malaga, Spain, on 16-17 September 2022, to general relief and happiness. Created...
My dear friend Stefano Pavletic, a mediator from Milan Italy, has sent me this thoughtful and timely article that I hope readers will reflect upon. A strange idea of neutrality by Stefano Pavleti? * It is well known that "third party status" of the mediator with respect to the parties, the dispute...
Two experts in the Milan UIA Mediation Forum addressed “Abuse in the Mediation Process.” The speakers were Renate Dendorfer-Ditges of Bonn and Galyna Yeromenko of Kyev. The contributions of Anne-Karin Grill of Vienna were also represented, though her illness frustrated her in-person participation. Topics included bad-faith participation, lying by the parties or by the mediator,...
At the 27th meeting pf the UIA World Forum of Mediation Centres, in Milan, Danielle Hutchinson of Melbourne Australia and Jill Goldson of Auckland New Zealand offered a provocative discussion on “Innovative Approaches to Mediation.” Danielle introduced “MyDRHub,” an initiative in party-centric dispute resolution. Referring to Global Pound Conference data, she...
Peter Kaskell died on December 12, 2019. He was a dear friend whom I met at the CPR Institute and who taught me not just the delicate arts of demand-led commercial dispute management, but the even more delicate arts of humility, service and attention to others' needs. At the age...
I have been teaching negotiation for nine years now, and the gratification never ends. For the past several years, I've made a final assignment called the "Blue Paperclip Exercise," brought to my attention by Hal Abramson, in which a student is given a paperclip and assigned to increase initial value...
At the 26th convening of the UIA World Mediation Forum in Zurich on March 5-6, 2019, a panel on whether mediation should be compulsory, among representatives of France, the US, Switzerland, and Italy, wrestled with intriguing philosophical considerations. Is compulsory court annexed ADR inconsistent with the principle of judicial access? ...