CONTEMPORARY TENDENCIES IN MEDIATION

Mediation became an important tool in different fields and notably in conflicts concerning family, civil and commercial law as well as restorative justice. In the international scenario, mediation progresses call the attention because of its new impact and interfaces in traditional dispute resolution means as arbitration and new technologies prospering also in online dispute resolution. In this book, some European perceptions are related in different articles by Neil Andrews, Isabelle Hering and Giovanni Mateucci in England, Switzerland and Italy respectively. The difficulties of institutionalization of mediation in different cultures still imply some already known but still very relevant questioning and Giuseppe de Palo propose some adjustments in the mediation implementation in the legal systems, notably in the European landscape. Finally, the same continent shows interesting recent practices concerning restorative justice, as described by Helena Soleto Muñoz, who detects signs of development and resistance in south Europe. Still, amplifying from the communitarian to the international legal context, Juliana Loss de Andrade examines the legal environment for international commercial mediation settlement agreement and consequent arguments for the task of harmonization of normative framework. Finally, Lela P. Love and Joseph B. Stulberg didactically touch relevant practical aspects of the use of mediation and Paul Mason brings the focus to the multi-dimensional mediation, considering the method beyond the limited two parties’ scenario. In this book, it is clear that, differently from the usual legal discussions, mediation is conflict resolution language understandable in different legal cultures. The multifaceted character of mediation emphasized in the texts is an invitation of interconnected contributions between different perspectives in a global and well-connected community.