insights

Analysis
MARC Mediation:
Resolving
Business
Conflicts
Smartly
For mediation to become more
accepted in the corporate
culture of private and public
organisations, there is a need
for a healthier use of speech
and dialogue, a more direct and
frank approach to problems and
the willingness to open up to the
intervention of an external third
party who is neither a sitting
judge nor a government official.
Mediation is an alternative
dispute resolution method
which is becoming
increasingly popular in developed
countries, especially for resolving
commercial and business disputes.
The process is very different from
litigation or arbitration but is gaining
a reputation for securing the highest
rates of successful settlement
agreements, given its voluntary
nature and the importance given
to dialogue and creative solutionfinding.
Considered a more ‘mature’
way of resolving conflicts, mediation
engages parties to the dispute from
beginning till end, and provides them
with the ability to maintain control of
the conflict-resolution process.
The word ‘mediation’ comes
from the Latin root ‘medium’, which
signifies an intervening agency, or
something ‘about halfway between
extremes’. Indeed, parties to a
conflict might in its worst stages
find themselves at opposite ends of
a seemingly irreconcilable spectrum
of recriminations, contentions,
claims, arguments... The mediator,
as an intervening agent, will have
the delicate mission of toning things
down so that the focus is brought
back once again to what exactly is
the issue at hand, and what actually
are the interests of each party,
beyond any rigid positions adopted.
“Mediation cases in
developed countries
have success rates of
above 95%. And more
and more business
disputes are being
channelled through this
process, rather than
directly to arbitration or
court.”
Fostering an ADR
Culture in Mauritius:
Mind-Set change and
Education
At the MCCI Arbitration and
Mediation Center, the challenge
since the introduction of a new
mediation service in 2014, has
been to bring operators to trust
in a process with which they are
quite unfamiliar, as more used to
adversarial, litigious processes. This
has meant considerably education
and sensitisation efforts in order to
change the mind-set and traditional
dispute resolution approaches.
More recently, following upon
the trend set during the past two
years, MARC has invested a lot of
resources in training professionals
of all sectors and sensitizing them
to the benefits of using ADR for
resolving business conflicts. A first
intensive training course of 5 days
in arbitration was held mid-2015,
conducted in collaboration with the
CMAP and Dr Jalal El Ahdab. This was
followed by a series of 7 workshops
led by Dr. Craig C. Beles, under the
US Fulbright Programme. Overall,
107 professionals received training
in arbitration and/or mediation
last year. MARC also conducted
various information work sessions
with individual companies, groups
of companies, and sectoral and
professional associations in its ongoing
efforts to create a strong ADR
culture in Mauritius. In addition, mock
mediation sessions were regularly
organised for professionals wishing
to refine their mediation skills.
Through these various activities
and interactions, we have noted that
beyond sensitisation and education,
deeper issues need to be addressed
before mediation become more
accepted in the corporate culture of
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