Over the past year, both the civil judiciary and the Ministry of Justice have made clear their shared policy aim of bringing about a paradigm shift in the civil justice system, to one in which the potential for ADR is embedded into court procedure and culture at all stages of the process (see, for example, … Read more

A recent English High Court decision serves as a reminder that the court has power to hand down a reserved judgment despite the proceedings having settled, even where the settlement was reached before the court circulated a draft judgment to the parties. There is no need for the court to be satisfied that there were … Read more

The Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) has released an investor-state Mediation Guide to assist lawyers and users of investor-state mediation with the process. HSF Partner Andrew Cannon, a member of CEDR’s advisory group of leading practitioners, contributed to the Guide. There have been a number of mediation-focused initiatives in the field of investor-state disputes … Read more

The Ministry of Justice has published a Report summarising the responses it received to a Call for Evidence it issued in August last year. Although entitled a Call for Evidence on Dispute Resolution in England and Wales, the document was in fact focused on methods of resolving disputes apart from litigation –  including mediation, conciliation, … Read more

As we previously reported, the UK government is currently consulting on whether the UK should sign the UN Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation, more commonly known as the Singapore Convention. The consultation closes on 1 April 2022. The Convention establishes a framework under which Member States agree to recognise and enforce settlements of … Read more

Herbert Smith Freehills is hosting a special in-person event in London to celebrate the launch of our updated Guide to Dispute Resolution in Africa (3rd Edition). We are delighted to invite you to join us. Read more

The LCAM-HSF survey on compulsory mediation closes for responses this Friday (11 March). Users of mediation, litigation and/or arbitration are invited to complete the short survey online here. We look forward to sharing the results and insights from the survey in due course. Read more

The recently released 11th edition of the Commercial Court Guide includes a number of revisions to the section regarding the use of ADR – including a change of terminology to “NDR” (for “negotiated dispute resolution”). The revisions will not require any substantial change in day to day practice, and a comparison against the previous edition might … Read more