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This book meets the practice needs of lawyers confronted with cross-border
disputes now arising far beyond the traditional areas of international
commerce, such as consumer disputes, inter-family conflicts, and disagreements
over Internet-based transactions. The author takes full account of mediation’s
risks and limitations, primarily its lack of finality and uncertainty in
relation to enforceability issues which will persist until the advent of
appropriate international regulation. Among the aspects discussed and analysed
are the following:
• the emerging and significant new wave of global disputants;
• need to resolve disputes on the basis of factors other than law;
• increasing tendency of disputes to defy specific legal categories;
• dispute prevention systems drawing on mediation principles, such as project
management mediation, partnering, and alliancing;
• mediation compared to others forms of dispute resolution;
• referral to mediation;
• mediation and multi-tiered dispute resolution (MDR) clauses;
• the duties of mediators, lawyers and parties;
• confidentiality and its implications;
• enforceability of mediated settlements; and
• the impact of mediation on legal rights and remedies.
While the book draws on examples from around the world, six primary
jurisdictions (the United States, Australia, England, France, Germany, and
Austria) are selected for several reasons, including comparison of legal
traditions, significant volume of mediation-related case law, and the
existence of mediation-related legislation and implementation requirements.
Cross-border legal instruments examined include the European Directive on
Mediation, UNCITRAL’s Model Law on International Commercial Conciliation
(MLICC), and the Uniform Mediation Act (UMA) in the United States. In the 21st
century mediation is at the forefront of contemporary social and legal
development and is finding a place in both physical dispute resolution forums
and worldwide electronic-based communities. International and Comparative
Mediation, with its deeply informed insights into emerging international
trends and the diversity of mediation regulation applicable to international
disputes, shows conflict management practitioners how to create a forum
culturally acceptable to each specific group of participants, with a view to
agreeing on appropriate norms for the regulation of future relationships. It
will be welcomed by lawyers working in a wide range of cross-border practice.
Professor Nadja Alexander holds appointments at City University Hong Kong,
Murdoch University in Australia and University of the Witwatersrand in South
Africa. Her books on dispute resolution have been published internationally
and her work has appeared in English, German and Russian language versions.