RECENT TRENDS AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL MEDIATION

Abstract

“The business of Business is Business, not litigation” as has been rightly put in words by an American Judge. International Mediation in commercial disputes is a promising premise, beyond commercial arbitration. The purpose of this paper is to identify the distinctive characteristics of International Commercial Mediation and its expediency in diverse cases to encompass judicial infallibility. 

The paper employs an exploratory method of research to study the growth of Mediation as a preferred form of Dispute Resolution over Arbitration attributable to its cost effectiveness, confidentiality, flexibility and numerous other factors. However, mediation is still met with profound ignorance and considerable suspicion by commercial organizations owing to a lack o International Legal regime pertaining to Mediation, unlike International Arbitration. Nevertheless, the imaginable route to an acceptable solution provided by Mediation makes it a favored dispute resolution method. Interest-based mediation has been described as the life’s-blood of commercial dispute resolution in common law countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, lies like a sleeping giant in most of Europe, China and the Indian subcontinent – markets that literally define the future of global commerce

The study aims to study the challenges posed to Mediation in the race of the ‘Most preferred form of ADR method in International Commercial Disputes’. Paper discusses the complexities arising due to lack of enforcement measures in the system, which proves to be a bane and a boon. Dearth of ‘concrete’ precedents in commercial mediation also detracts parties in disputes. The paper also studies practical challenges in the way of commercial mediation with respect to the strategies, training of mediators and mediation facilitating organizations.

Conclusively, the paper is also suggestive of a new legal framework in the International Commercial Mediation with respect to Enforcement of Settlement Agreements. Proposal for convention to enforce settlements in Cross border disputes including its scope, diversity in practices.