Originially from: World Arbitration and Mediation Review (WAMR)

A New Impetus for ADR in France?:
The New French Law On Mediation and Conciliation
By Richard H. Kreindler, Partner, Jones Day Reavis & Pogue.
[Editor's Note: Richard H. Kreindler, a member of the Advisory Board
of WAMR, is admitted to the New York and Paris Bars and practices in
Frankfurt. He is Coordinator of the European/Middle East International
Disputes Practice of Jones Day. This article is based on a previous
publication in the December 1995/January 1996 issue of International
Commercial Litigation, London, of which he is a member of the Editorial
Board, and is printed with permission.]
It is a proverbial observation that alternative dispute resolution has
increased by quantum leaps in the United States, England, other Anglo-
American jurisdictions, and certain Asian countries in recent years. It is an
equally time-honored observation that sporadic, well-intentioned efforts
have been made to inject aspects of ADR into the legal regimes and
cultures of Continental Europe.
Indeed very recently, as seen by the efforts of such respected
institutions as the Institute of International Business Law and Practice of
the ICC, the Netherlands Mediation Institute and CPR Institute for Dispute
Resolution's European Advisory Committee, ADR is tangibly on the map
as a reference point for many practitioners and in-house lawyers in
Europe.
Of course, ADR, in various forms, has in fact been a feature of the
legal-commercial landscape in certain countries other than the US for a
considerable time. A primary example is France—the same country whose
legal system has been a source of indirect support of international
arbitration, which was after all originally conceived as one form of extrajudicial
ADR.
The purpose of these comments is not to expand abstractly upon the
appropriateness of ADR for Continental European jurisdictions. Nor is it
to elaborate upon why the systemic causes of ADR in the US, and to a
certain extent in England, may not exist in Continental Europe, including
France. Nor is it to address the differing roles on both sides of the Atlantic