NCJ Number
96201
Journal
Vermont Law Review Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (Spring 1981) Pages: 85-117
Date Published
1981
Length
33 pages
Annotation
This discussion conceptualizes the mediation process to help define the positions and roles of the various participants, identifies the mediator's basic functions, outlines some of the personal characteristics and skills required of a mediator, describes two approaches used by mediators to develop settlements, and compares how the mediator's approach to dispute resolution differs from Susskind's conception of the environmental mediator.
Abstract
The mediation process is a noncompulsory procedure in which an impartial, neutral party is invited or accepted by disputants to help them identify issues of mutual concern and design solutions to these issues which are acceptable to both. A mediator is a catalyst, an educator, a translator, an expander of the resources available to the parties, a bearer of bad news, an agent of reality, and a scapegoat. Structuring the agenda for discussion and moving the parties toward agreement comprise an integral part of the mediator's effort toward a resolution. Contrary to Susskind's suggestion, the mediator actually gains strength -- 'clout' -- precisely because of a basic commitment to a posture of neutrality. Susskind's environmental mediator or 'mediator with clout' assumes an intervention posture that differs importantly from that of the traditional mediator. Thirty-eight footnotes are provided.