Mediator skills and techniques: Triangle of influence is a clear, practical and essential guide covering the skills, techniques and strategies required in mediation. It is a resource for both beginner and experienced mediators. It also provides insights and resources for lawyers representing clients in mediation, other participants in mediation and those involved in the practice of dispute resolution.

Part One elucidates the historical foundations of mediation in different contexts and the theories and values underlying its modern applications. Part Two describes how mediation is conducted, in its many variations, with reference to the roles of mediators, parties, lawyers and the others involved in the process. Part Three describes the modern practice of mediation, in Australia and abroad, and analyses the numerous laws and cases that regulate aspects of the mediation process.

This article examines aspects of ADR in and about the Queensland Supreme Court. It deals with both the legal-institutional features of the court-connected ADR processes in that State and their actual operation in practice. It discusses some of the trends in these forms of ADR and attempts to develop some explanatory theories for these trends. Finally, it deals with the broader context of ADR developments in the State, with particular reference to the legislation induced by the insurance crisis which has developed ADR outside, and in some respects instead of, that which occurs in the court system.

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With pineapples and coal, legal and call-centre services, and Australian dollars and Botswana pula slipping endlessly and easily around the planet, the question arises as to what rules, procedures and remedies apply when they collide on the way or cause damage when they arrive.

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Few Australians have not been affected in some way by the current difficulties in the public liability and medical indemnity insurance industries. Public events have been cancelled, surgery has been postponed and increased premiums have affected many households, voluntary organisations and small businesses.

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In the Kalahari desert in Botswana and Namibia the Bushmen have lived traditional lives for many thousands of years. The lack of technological refinement belies a sophistication in dispute resolution practices which have evolved without courts and a formal state system and are suited to the needs of a collective hunter-gatherer society.

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John Michael Haynes was known to many Australian mediators. He travelled to this country on several occasions, presented seminars and workshops, produced training videos, and, together with that other doyenne of mediation Stephanie Charlesworth, produced a local version of his family mediation text, Haynes and Charlesworth, Family Mediation (Federation Press, 1996). Sadly John is no longer with us but he has left behind his books on mediation going back to 1981, memories of his training courses, and his vibrant videos characterised by his elegance of attire and language and compelling body language, particularly his hand motions.

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The front cover of this book is dominated by a giant fire-ball burning against a dark background. Is this the conflagration which will ensue if workplace conflicts proliferate and are not appropriately managed? Above the fireball is a blue sky with wisps of white cloud. Perhaps the symbolism is best left to readers who can interpret according to their own predelictions. However whatever the dramatics on the front cover, there is a fine contribution to the ADR literature between the covers.

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Topical ADR

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This is the third in an occasional series on the impact of court decisions on the development of ADR. The first two casenotes were published in ADR 3(10) and 4(2).

This casenote refers to the Federal Court decision in ACCC v Lux Pty Ltd [2001] FCA 600 (24 May 2001), involving a vacuum cleaner, a zealous seller, a disabled purchaser and the corporate regulator. The most significant feature of this case is the way the Court dealt with the applicant’s argument that its public interest functions made it inappropriate for the ACCC to negotiate a settlement of the litigation.

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A recent international treaty has gone some way towards making litigation a more attractive option, vis-à-vis arbitration, in international dispute resolution, while leaving other forms of ADR somewhat in the cold.

ADR round - up.

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The Victorian Supreme Court proceedings in Merigan-James v James arose out of the former de facto relationship of the plaintiff and defendant. While they had agreed on the division of much of their joint property the couple had been unable to agree on the division of a house in Echuca, a business, and some personal chattels and shares. The parties, with their respective legal representatives, attended an ‘informal mediation session’ on 9 March 2004.

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It is always good to see an addition to Australian resources in ADR and this publication has reviewed a number of recent local books on the topic. If ADR is about resolving disputes with an awareness of differences, then it is important for its development to be rooted in the native soil, while also taking account of comparative developments abroad. Think globally, produce locally.

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This is the third edition of Peter Condliffe’s well-known text on dispute resolution. It has retained many of its earlier features and has been supplemented, expanded and rewritten in many parts to keep up with this fast-moving subject.

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The starting point to this article is the changing nature of legal practice. To narrow the gap between legal education and practice in the legal services industry it is necessary to identify and predict some of the contemporary trends in practice. Practising lawyers are regularly confronted by the changing contours of legal work: client participation in legal services, collaborative lawyering, on-line dispute resolution, preventative and neutral lawyering, non-adversarial adjudication, rehabilitative justice, judicial dispute resolution, unbundling of legal services and therapeutic justice.

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This book has been published in French and English by a German publisher, with an Australian editor and with an American foreword. It contains contemporary descriptions and evaluations of dispute resolution practice in 15 countries in four continents, with an elegant introductory chapter by the editor.

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In the UK the Lord Chancellor’s Department has produced a report with the results of a major survey of court based ADR in the Central London County Court and in the Court of Appeal.

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Much of the comparative ADR discussions in Australia refer to the two Uniteds – the UK and the US. The latter was a source of inspiration in the early days of ADR development in this country and the former has, after a late start, come to constitute a valuable source of comparative wisdom. There is some inevitability in these comparative perspectives, given historical, cultural and political realities.

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In the past decade all Australian legislatures have enthusiastically introduced alternative dispute resolution (ADR) into a wide range of courts, tribunals and other decision-making agencies. In that process, both the court procedures and legal systems have been modified from an adversarial perspective to alternative forms of decision-making.