Russia Included in New Legal Treatise on Mediation

At the end of November 2012 Oxford University Press publishing house released the treatise “Mediation. Principles and Regulation in Comparative Perspective”.

With its clear and reader-friendly structure, this book gives an insight into the key problems and most recent tendencies of the law and practice of mediation in various countries, including Russia.

The book was prepared by an international team of authors consisting of experts on the separate countries listed in the treatise. The editors are Professor Dr. Dr. Klaus J. Hopt, the Director (Emeritus) of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg, and Dr. Felix Steffek, a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute.

The 1,400 plus page treatise analyses legal, practical and institutional aspects of mediation in developed countries.

The book encompasses the EU Member States as well as Switzerland, Norway, Russia, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and China. “The rationale behind the selection of the countries was to cover different regions of the world, with a particular emphasis on particular states with developed legal regulation and practice of mediation”, says Dmitry Davydenko, the author of the Russian chapter.

“Russia was chosen because it already has detailed federal legislation governing mediation. Also, mediation has been practised in our country for years, even when such legislation was not in force. Furthermore, Russian law governing mediation is in rapid development. The Supreme Commercial Court has introduced a bill on ADR related to state commercial court procedure, including judicial conciliation. In addition, Russian mediation providers have established non-governmental organisations with the aim of regulating the emerging profession and ensuring its quality. Thus current Russian experience can be of interest to legislators and practitioners from many countries which also face problems with case overload in the state courts”.

This treatise has plenty of useful information for studying models of legal regulation of mediation as well as for refining legislation. It is intended to provide research and analysis of foreign mediation law and practice in various countries and regions.

For this purpose there is a detailed unified structure and set of definitions across all country chapters. This enables readers to find the information they are looking for in a matter of minutes, e.g., on the status of settlement agreements or on mediation in commercial or public law disputes.

In addition to the country chapters, the treatise has three analytical chapters concerning fundamental mediation issues, including the privatisation of civil justice and diversity and harmonisation of legal regulation of mediation in different countries.

Of particular interest for Russian and many other readers may be the data on the EU Member States’ implementation of the Directive on Mediation in Civil and Commercial Matters (2008) as well as on reforms of the legal regulation of mediation around the world. The information on court-annexed mediation and judicial conciliation is also of major importance.

The book was prepared on the basis of legislation, case law and legal doctrine in the respective countries as of 1 June 2012.

Detailed information about the book may be found at the publishing house website.

Download the book flyer, the book сover and contents.