International ADR Projects

ADR Center – International Technical Assistance (ITA) has been involved in a number of major technical assistance projects to develop and promote the use of ADR techniques.

Civil Justice2007-2013: Making information sessions on the use of mediation easily available throughout the EU: A video guide to facilitate settlement

The project aims to contribute to the overall objective of increasing the use of mediation in resolving cross-border commercial and civil disputes by creating a specialized, multi-language video about cross-border mediation.

Civil Justice2007-2013: Beyond Winning: Successful Mediation Advocacy in Representing Clients

This projects aims to professionalize and facilitate the use of mediation in the EU by teaching lawyers specific skills (“know-how”) on how to represent a client in mediation, creating awareness and proficiency in representing clients in mediation and European standards for mediation advocacy, facilitating European cooperation of lawyers from several EU countries in the field of ADR and stimulating the use of mediation.

Civil Justice 2007-2013: The Costs of Non ADR – Surveying and Showing the Actual Costs of Intra-community Commercial Litigation

The primary objectives of this consultancy are to create a survey to quantify the cost of not using mediation and two, and to present a conference for the dissemination of the survey results. The long-term impact of the survey is that it will reduce the need for commercial litigation and also increase business to business transactions.

Barbados
The objective of this 2009 consultancy is to tailor a series of court-annexed ADR mechanisms for different sectors of the justice system of Barbados, establishing early neutral evaluation, settlement conferences and mediation as sustainable alternatives for resolving civil and criminal cases. This will involve establishing a list of trained and certified mediators and early neutral evaluators.
Nigeria
The goal of this intensive 2008-2009 pilot project is to support Abia, Kaduna, and Lagos States in establishing and/or expanding ADR institutions and mechanisms, particularly to facilitate resolution of disputes involving Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Morocco
The objective of this 2008 consultancy was to enhance mediation skills in Morocco through training a cadre of internationally accredited mediators, in order to help extricate the private sector, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), from expensive and lengthy litigation.
Turkey
The ADR goals of this major 2007-2009 project include improving awareness among both the legal community and the general public as to the existence and benefits of ADR, as well as developing legal skills and involvement in the growth of ADR, particularly mediation. As the leader of a consortium which includes Istanbul Bilgi University and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, ADR Center supervises two other project elements managed by its expert partners: improving the Legal Aid system, and expand the information technology infrastructure of the Ministry of Justice.
MEDA
ADR Center led this 2005-2008 consortium project, which was designed to facilitate international trade and foreign investment in the 10 MEDA countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and West Bank & Gaza) through increasing numerous Bar, business and judiciary groups’ confidence and capacity to conduct and manage commercial dispute resolution. A second objective of this project was to reinforce the business networks which already existed at the sub-regional and regional levels on both sides of the Mediterranean. A longer-term objective was to prepare the main stakeholder groups (the judiciary, lawyers’ associations and business associations) to cooperate in the future on new projects on these issues.