At present, the project called “Mediation-Effective Public Policy in the Civil Dialogue” aims to explore options for a public policy in Romania in the field of mediation. The project is funded by the European Union under the Operational Program Administrative Capacity 2014-2020, Priority Axis 1 – Public Administration and Efficient Judicial System, Component 1 –…

Four years after Romanian Constitutional Courts’ Decision no. 266/2014 has put mediation in Romania to freeze, this year the Parliament has adopted a set of amendments to the Law of Mediation. It included a mandatory „mediation attempt” clause in order to revitalize this activity. But the President of Romania has already challenged these modifications at…

There aren’t many models of effective mediation legal frameworks that ensure sustainable systems of mediation. In fact, in most countries, the mediators don’t have demand and a real market for services. They are trying to convince users, lawyers, judges, policy makers, others and sometimes themselves that mediation is a viable option of the dispute resolution…

A model dispute resolution clause that can often be found in domestic commercial contracts reads “(1) The parties have agreed that all disagreements regarding this agreement be settled amicably by their representatives.; (2) If it is not possible to resolve disputes amicably, the parties will address the competent courts of law.”. The language of the…

This post was inspired by conversations with a group of people that I’ve joined last weekend for an amazing field trip in Southern Carpathians. In addition to breath-taking landscapes, mountains are teaching us many lessons, including listening, patience, hope and diversity of paths and destinations. Therefore, mountain walks are not only excellent opportunities for exercises…

We agree sometimes to engage in a simple dialogue or in a mediated conversation with other people, but do we necessarily mean the same thing when thinking about dialogue? Are there significant process impacts induced by our perspectives and expectations? And could the dialogue process be more effective should these differences are clarified beforehand? What…

Question How long it takes before your average mediation is concluded? You may have experience with the mediation process as a mediator, party, advisor, or referral. Or not, and you may simply wonder how much time is needed for a mediation process to be concluded. Theory and practice It’s interesting if we think about the…

Speaking recently with a lawyer friend about the way that mediation is impacting the traditional justice mechanisms, I was happy to observe more openness towards ADR than the usual “allergy to it”, yet the honest reply included “[…] unfortunately, not only lawyers can provide mediation services, and this will hurt the quality”. Of course, this…

This article was prepared by Rasim Gjoka, Merita Bala and Constantin-Adi Gavrilă, mediators and company-community facilitators. The idea to write about this topic came up after a meeting of community and company members, discussing on finding solutions to sensitive issues -related to environment, safety, investment and employment. After the interactive communication and dialogue, and sometimes…