The Scottish government has recently issued a publication on its plans to reform the use of mediation in the Scottish civil justice system. In the publication, the government expresses its intention to establish a ‘Scottish Dispute Resolution Delivery Group’ that will meet in early 2020 to develop and shape an “evidence-based package of reform” relating … Read more

A trend toward combining alternative dispute resolution processes (typically mediation and arbitration) is gaining traction internationally and is being particularly driven in Asia by the Belt and Road Initiative. With China at the heart of the Belt and Road, a more consensus-driven approach to dispute resolution, reflecting Asian values and promoting mediation, looks set to … Read more

Jan O’Neill Professional Support Lawyer, London   The UK Government has published legislation to effectively revoke the implementation of the EU Mediation Directive (2008/52/EC) after Brexit. The Cross-Border Mediation (EU Directive) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 (the Regulations) were made on 1 March 2019 and will come into effect on exit day, whenever that occurs. Why? The development … Read more

Hong Kong has published its long-awaited Code of Practice for third party funders and announced that amendments to the Arbitration Ordinance, which permit funding of Hong Kong arbitrations, will come fully into force on 1 February 2019.   However, proposed amendments to the Mediation Ordinance (Cap. 620) regarding non-Hong Kong mediations, costs and disclosure of mediation communications … Read more

Jan O’Neill Professional Support Lawyer, London   The Civil Justice Council’s ADR working group has released its final report on ADR and Civil Justice, following consultation on its interim report released last year. The broad mandate of the review was “to maintain the search for the right relationship between civil justice and ADR” and to … Read more

Further to our earlier post, the Singapore Convention has now been published. It will be signed in Singapore on 7 August 2019 and will come into effect six months after at least three states have ratified it. The drafters’ goal is for the Singapore Convention to be for mediation what the New York Convention is … Read more

On 26 June, at the 51st session of UNCITRAL, final drafts for a Convention on the Enforcement of Mediation Settlements and corresponding Model Law were approved. This paves the way for adoption by UNCITRAL’s Commission later this year. It is understood that the Convention will be called the Singapore Mediation Convention and will be signed … Read more

We have previously commented on how the sheer complexity and scale of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative is prompting a welcome review of dispute resolution processes including efforts, led and supported by the Chinese government, to encourage mediation clauses in Belt and Road agreements. In the following article, first published on http://arbitrationblog.kluwerarbitration.com on 16 April 2018, Mingchao Fan … Read more