Mediation education

Lord Neuberger stressed the importance of making mediation “second nature” for judges and practitioners, in a speech to the fourth Civil Mediation Council national conference, on “Educating future mediators”, last week. The culture of mediation should be embedded “from the very beginning of a lawyer’s training”. It was therefore “essential” that an ADR version of the White and Green Books come into existence.

“An authoritative guide to all forms of ADR, giving details of every reputable mediation and ADR provider, setting out the different forms of ADR, outlining their benefits and drawbacks, and their applicability to different cases and circumstances seems to me to be an essential,” he said.

“That such a guide does not yet exist suggests to me that more education of practitioners is still needed. It suggests that many of them are not yet routinely turning their minds regularly to the possibility of ADR when they consider a client’s dispute.”

While litigation must be a remedy of last resort, it is essential in a civilised society, he said. “There is no question of the proper promotion of mediation and ADR being in some way antipathetic to a strong commitment to a justice system based on litigating and enforcing rights.”