LAWS7930 Special Topic E – Cross-Border Mediation Law and Practice
Cross-border Mediation Law and Practice deals with the rapidly growing area of private international mediation. Imagine the following scenario: An Australian mediator is asked to mediate a professional negligence dispute. The plaintiff is based in England, the defendant accounting firm is in Hong Kong, and the defendant’s insurer has its headquarters in the United States. All agree to attend mediation in Singapore. The preliminary discussions and meetings, however, take place via email and video-conference with all parties in their home countries. The mediation occurs and the parties reach a settlement, which the parties’ legal representatives draft into contractual form.
Such cross-border mediations involve:
- international and intercultural competencies
- online and face-to-face mediation protocols
- knowledge of private international law in relation to the substantive and procedural aspects of mediation.
This course offers participants a framework for understandingly cross-border mediation law (private international law of mediation). Here particular attention will be paid to the issue of enforceability of mediated settlement agreements, currently the focus of UNCITRAL deliberations. In addition, the course will provide participants with an international overview of practice and trends in this field. Finally, participants will have the opportunity to build specialised mediation skills relevant to cross-border settings.
Topics covered include:
- What is cross-border mediation?
- How has the practice developed?
- International trends in practice
- Diversity in practice
- The law of cross-border mediation
- Legal issues
- Form and content of cross-border mediation law
- Diversity and harmonisation in cross-border mediation law
- Cross-border legal instruments
- The UNCITRAL initiative on the enforceability of cross-border mediated settlement agreements
- Cross-cultural dispute resolution
- Online dispute resolution in cross-border settings
- Hybrid dispute resolution processes and cross-border applications
- Med-arb
- Arb-med-arb
- Double track mediation and arbitration
- Multi-tiered clauses and processes
Professor Nadja Alexander
Professor Nadja Alexander is Academic Director of the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy. She is a Senior Fellow at the Dispute Resolution Institute of Mitchell Hamline School of Law in the United States and has taught dispute resolution at universities and in corporate settings all over the world.
A recognised thought leader in the field of mediation, Nadja is an award winning author and educator (2011, 2007, 1997) and an independent adviser on mediation policy to international bodies, such as the World Bank Group, and national governments in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa.
Nadja has published more than 10 books and 100 papers and her work has been translated into seven languages. Nadja is editor of the international book series, Global Trends in Dispute Resolution and co-editor of Tán Pàn the Chinese-English Journal on Negotiation and the Kluwer Mediation Blog. Her major legal work, International Comparative Mediation: Legal Perspectives, won the prestigious CPR Award for Outstanding ADR book (New York 2011).
As a Humboldt Research Fellow, Nadja had held fellowships at both the Max Planck Institute for International and Comparative Law (2014-2015) and at the Europe-Viadrina University (2006-2007) in Germany.
Nadja has been engaged in the field of conflict resolution in more than 30 countries and is a sought-after commentator on the international circuit. She is a graduate of leading universities in Australia (Queensland), Germany (Tübingen) and Austria (Vienna). Nadja can be contacted at nadjaalexander@me.com .