Mediation
Mediation is an Alternative Dispute Resolution System which involves the intervention of a mediator to try to help parties to a dispute to try to achieve a settlement to the dispute between them.
Mediation is not a form of arbitration, nor is it a judgemental system. The art of mediating a dispute is to try to find a way in which the parties can achieve a result which they are able to accept, whether or not the underlying dispute is ever in fact resolved. Sometimes mediators can also conciliate disputes in order to resolve the disputes as well.
In a number of countries worldwide mediation has provided a very helpful Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism to having to go to either Court or arbitration. However the members of HKI-Network (international group of lawyers and advisors) have found over the years that cross border, genuine international mediation can be quite difficult.
The reason is that good mediation involves providing solutions to the parties. Sometimes the solution to a problem can be quite outside the actual dispute. This requires both the parties themselves but also the mediator to have an understanding what the types of solution are available.
Inevitably the types of solution in particular in legal mediations and legal disputes in different countries are quite different. For example those countries that have codified laws based upon the Napoleonic code usually do not accept the existence of a trust or in some cases even a nominee arrangement. Those countries whose law is based upon Anglo Saxon principles usually do accept the concept of a trust and certainly accept the concept of a nominee arrangement.
Accordingly if you have a dispute in which the parties are based in different countries then inevitably each party is unlikely to have a comprehensive understanding of the solutions that may be available in the other country.
Similarly if you have a mediator who is based in one country then he is unlikely to have a truly comprehensive knowledge and insight into the solutions available in another country.
Accordingly various members of the HKI-Network (who are all trained and experienced mediators) have banded together in order to be able to provide international mediation services by teams of mediators.
These services involve a mediator from each of the countries that is involved in the dispute working together as teams. Members of the HKI-Network are very used to working together as teams because we do it all the time (whether as lawyers or mediators).
International House of Mediation EWIV
The International House of Mediation is an EWIV (a German European Economic Interest Grouping) based in Hannover to which the HKI-Network mediators belong and can introduce clients who need international mediation to international mediators within the HKI-Network.
By its nature the sort of mediations that would justify international mediation services are large disputes involving substantial interest or sums of money. The indicative minimum mediation fee is €10,000 for a two mediator team based upon a face to face mediation in one European country in a discreet location and three days of administration, reading in and directions to the parties.
The HKI-Network can provide mediation services in discreet locations in private offices in all of the countries covered by the HKI-Network (currently including the UK, Eire, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Malta and by arrangement with our correspondent firms in Helsinki, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai).
All enquiries to:
James Selby Bennett – Humphries Kirk 3 Acorn Business Park, Ling Road, Poole, Dorset, BH12 4NZ
01202 725400 – jsb@hklaw.uk
Jacques Beghain – LBMB 25 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris
0033 147 66 02 66 – jacques.beghain@paris.notaires.fr
