Guest Post: empirical study on international commercial mediation and conciliation

[S.I. Strong is Associate Professor of Law and Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution at the University of Missouri.]

I wanted to let you know that the preliminary results from a recent empirical study on international commercial mediation and conciliation are now available.  The study, which is entitled “Use and Perception of International Commercial Mediation and Conciliation: A Preliminary Report on Issues Relating to the Proposed UNCITRAL Convention on International Commercial Mediation and Conciliation,” collected detailed data on 34 different questions from 221 respondents from all over the world. Survey participants included private practitioners, neutrals, in-house counsel, government lawyers, academics and judges with expertise in both domestic and international proceedings.

This information was gathered to assist UNCITRAL and UNCITRAL Working Group II (Arbitration and Conciliation) as they consider a proposal from the Government of the United States regarding a possible convention in this area of law. The U.S. proposal will be considered in depth at the Working Group II meeting in February 2015.

Those who would like to see a copy of the preliminary report can download a free copy here.  The data will be further analyzed in the coming months and published sometime next year as an article.

Many thanks to those from Opinio Juris who participated in the survey and who helped distribute it among their networks.  If you have any questions about the preliminary report, please feel free to let me know at strongsi@missouri.edu.