Development of Mediation Institute: foreign experience

Abstract

The article analyzes the process of formation of Mediation Institute from the origins to the present state in the EU and the US. The most appropriate stages of mediation were researched, situations, in which the most effective and most often can be used mediation, were found. There are suggested ways to overcome obstacles related to the development and spread of Mediation Institute.

One of the ways of reducing caseloads at the courts is implementing and developing alternative non-judicial approaches to dispute settlement, and mediation institute takes a special place among them stipulating for involving an independent third party – a mediator – in dispute settlement. Foreign experience witnesses that mediation is an effective means of reducing caseloads at the courts as well as an adequate effort of mitigating conflict risks. In most cases, conflict solution must be based on common interest and the parties’ potential to independently solve the conflict arisen between them.

This research aims at defining the mediation as one of the most effective approaches to solving conflicts in a civilized way by following the foreign experience.

In developed market-economy countries, the mediation has been widely practised for the last decade and has become one of the driving forces for society progress where people seek to solve conflicts independently – without involving state authorities.

The mediation may be defined as an independent way of alternative dispute settlement. It aims at finding a mutually acceptable compromise through direct negotiations or indirect negotiations facilitated by a mutually agreed third party. Nowadays in democratic developed market-economy countries, the alternative dispute settlement system is deemed as a real and viable mechanism for settling legal disputes between legal entities and individuals by an independent third party.