Convention on the future of international dispute resolution

Practical Law Dispute Resolution editor, Lucy Swallow, attended an interactive convention at London Guildhall on 29 October 2014, "Shaping the Future of International Dispute Resolution (IDR)".

Over 150 delegates from 20 countries attended the conference which provided the opportunity for voting, using electronic handsets, on key questions focussing on the development of mediation in the context of IDR. Delegates identified themselves as belonging to one of five groups for voting purposes (users, advisors, providers, educators and others) which allowed the results to be broken down and compared live at the event. An overarching theme throughout the voting was the divergence of views between users on the one hand, and advisers and providers on the other. For example, over 75% of users thought that mediation should be used as early as possible in a dispute, whereas only 44% of advisers, and perhaps more surprisingly, only 42% of providers agreed. Almost all users favoured mediator certification and accountability (92%), in contrast with only 33% of advisers. There was general agreement that the role of in-house counsel is key to driving forward the use of mediation and that they must engage with external counsel in this process.

The convention, at which Herbert Smith Freehills were the lead sponsor, ended with a strong vote in favour of working towards setting up a series of global Pound conferences (named after the 1976 U.S. Pound Conference which raised the profile of modern ADR and mediation) to take place simultaneously around the world, with live linking, to build on the debate and data generated on the future of mediation in the context of IDR. The International Mediation Institute is leading this initiative and details of this, along with the data and live chat from the event are available on their website, at www.imimediation.org.

For more on mediation, see our new Practice note, Mediation: Overview, one of our five new practice notes on mediation published this month.

Source: Shaping the future of international dispute resolution, London Guildhall, 29 October 2014.