Joint mediation: two heads better than one in international disputes

Joint mediation allows both parties to a dispute to select their own trusted mediators to jointly conduct a mediation. Though it is a new model, the Beijing Arbitration Commission (BAC) believes it has tremendous value and bright prospects in commercial dispute resolution. As both mediators are equal in position and power in the process of mediation, this kind of mediation makes both parties more confident in the fairness of the process. This is more obvious in international commercial cases, where parties from different cultural backgrounds have equal rights of speech in joint mediation.

This equality helps to build trust between both parties in mediation. Usually two mediators may come up with a more comprehensive, impartial and wiser mediation scheme, and therefore a consensus is more readily reached.

In order to provide quality mediation services, on 1 April 2008, the BAC began implementing independent mediation rules; on 28 September 2011, BAC established its independent mediation centre. For the past few years, BAC has been exploring this new model of mediation. The following explains the process and advantages of joint mediation by taking a real case of the BAC as an example.