Originally from World Arbitration And Mediation Review (WAMR)

I. INTRODUCTION

Combining mediation with arbitration, a practice as old as ancient Greece, is a dispute resolution design process that has been drawing increasing attention in recent years. Users are consistently calling for providers to offer services that result in more expeditious resolution at lower cost. For example, in a survey conducted in January of 2013 by the International Mediation Institute (IMI), 75% of the users responded that arbitration providers should actively encourage parties to an arbitration proceeding to use mediation to settle their disputes.1 Providers are keenly aware of these user demands and all are focused on providing solutions. The AAA and ICDR have for many years had their case managers suggest mediation at the inception of the case and periodically throughout the arbitration as the IMI survey suggests. The ICC in the Appendix to its 2011 rules amendment provided that “where agreed by the parties and the arbitral tribunal, the arbitral tribunal may take steps to facilitate settlement of the dispute,”2 a provision similar to that found in the institutional rules of several other providers. A closer examination of med-arb and arb-med is accordingly timely.