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Business Mediation in France - WAMR 2006 Vol. 17, No. 7

Author(s): 
Deborah Macfarlane
Page Count: 
22 pages
Media Description: 
PDF from World Arbitration and Mediation Report (WAMR) 2006 Vol. 17, No. 7
Published: 
June, 2006
Jurisdictions: 
France
Practice Areas: 
Commercial Disputes,
Dispute Resolution & Litigation,
Mediation
Author Detail: 

 

Deborah Macfarlane, Ph.D. Candidate, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia. Attorney Macfarlane is interested in the differences between mediation in common law and civil law countries. Her thesis involves a comparison of family mediation in France and Australia. This article was written while she was a senior researcher at La Trobe University.
 
Bertrand Lasserre, Centre de Médiation et d’Arbitrage de Paris (CMAP)

PDF198.33 KB

$40.00
Description: 

 

Preview Page
Nadja Alexander’s Mediation Column
Business Mediation in France
By Deborah Macfarlane∗ & Bertrand Lasserre+
1. Introduction
In common law countries, mediation developed rapidly in
business-related areas, including commercial, planning, building, workrelated
and consumer disputes. The seminal book for commercial
mediation, Getting to Yes, established early the suitability of mediation as
a cost-saving measure in the world of law and business. However, in
France, mediation has largely been associated with welfare organizations
that introduced it from Québec in the mid-1980s for use mainly in criminal
and family matters. These are areas most businesspeople consider beneath
their interest and the prestige of mediation has suffered accordingly. The
commercial world of judges, lawyers, notaries, and businesspeople has,
therefore, in France, as in other European countries, been slow to accept
any diversion from its traditional practices. Commercial and businessrelated
mediation is still in its infancy in France.
Nevertheless, it is worth examining the current situation as the
groundwork has been laid in the past fifteen years, both legislatively and
by industry, to expand the use of mediation without drafting extensive
legislation or creating new organizations. This expansion is likely to
occur in the next decade due to the endorsement of mediation for member
countries in commercial matters by the European Union in a number of
green papers, reports, recommendations, and directives. The French
government also supports the use of mediation and interest is currently
growing, albeit slowly, among the judiciary and industry, as the time taken
to finalize a litigated matter has been extended to several years.
2. The Legislative Framework of Mediation
In November 1989, a government circular recommended mediation
as the primary dispute resolution method for any judicial dispute,
including commercial and business related matters. In April 1989, a bill to
the same effect was introduced in the National Assembly for all but
criminal cases. These measures were largely the result of lobbying by
welfare associations involved in the penal and family areas, but the
proposed legislation, which subsequently failed, also applied to
commercial and work-related matters.