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2020 Herald of Law 17 (2020)
Mediating Mediation: The Easy Opt-out Model

handle is hein.journals/heraldl2020 and id is 146 raw text is: Giuseppe DePalo Mediating Mediation: the Easy Opt-Out Model De Italiaan Giuseppe De Palo is ombudsman van de ontwikkelings-organisaties van de Verenigde Naties, gerenommeerd hoogleraar op het gebied van alternatieve conflictbeslechting, een van de oprichters van het ADR Centrum in Rome en ervaren mediator. Hij heeft veel geschreven over de Europese Mediationrichtlijn en - wetgeving, en met name het zogenaamde 'opt-out'-systeem. Als het aan De Palo Iigtworden potentile procespartijen in aangewezen zaken verplicht eerst serieus mediation te beproeven voordat zij ontvankelijk zijn in een gerechtelijke procedure. Wij Iegden hem schriftelijk een aantal vragen voor. INTERVIEW If we understand you correctly, you advocate for a system where parties, as a general rule, must at least sit down with a mediator before starting litigation. After this first ses- sion, they are free to 'opt-out' of the mediation process, without nega - tive consequences, and initiate a court pro- cedure. The mandatory character of this first session, in order to gain 'access to justice', does not appear to fit naturally with the idea that mediation is a funda- mentally voluntary process. Of course, it all depends on how oneunderstands 'access to justice' and 'voluntariness'. How would you define these notions in the context of the 'opt-out' system? And how are these concepts applied in your work as the Ombudsman forUnited Na- tions Funds and Programmes? I believe we do not need new defini- tions of the voluntariness of mediation, or of access to justice, to accommodate the mediation model I call 'easy opt-out'. In fact, to me the model fits right in the traditional concept of voluntariness, in that all parties must agree to go through with mediation. The parties are simply required to attend one initial mediation meeting with their mediator. This meeting should not be a mere 'mediation information-session.' What mediation is and can/ cannot do is some- thing the parties should find out about before engaging in the process, espe- cially via their lawyers. The meeting should focus on the viability of media- tion in the case at hand. For that to hap- pen, the parties need to be talking, at least to some extent, about the merit of the case; see their mediator in action; gauge the attitude of the other side; lis- ten to the opponent's side of the story and legal arguments, etc. Therefore, the first meeting has to take place with their chosen mediator rather than a 'media- info@heraldoflaw. com

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