New wine in old bottles or the nuclear deterrent? Peter Causton discusses mediation post Briggs & the Brexit vote
Much has been written about the effect of Brexit upon the cross border reciprocal arrangements for enforcement of judgments and making claims, but not much about the impact on the advancement of alternative dispute resolution and mediation in the UK, following Brexit and Lord Justice Briggs’s Civil Courts Structure Review.
The EU published its report on the EU Mediation Directive 2008/52/EC on 26 August 2016, following a consultation. It is clear from this report that much has been achieved in promoting mediation in EU member states for civil and commercial disputes, since the directive was introduced. The report says that most member states have extended the measures to domestic cases. However, the Directive has brought about no, or limited, changes to the systems of the 15 states which had a pre-existing system, although four states had adopted mediation systems for the first time.
Mediation
The report identifies difficulties in functioning in practice, mainly related
