The paper takes into consideration the different degrees of power and control that can be exercised by the mediator/arbitrator. This issue is investigated with particular regard to such aspects as the nature of the ADR procedure adopted, the cultural context in which the procedure takes place, and the formulation of specific legal norms. The analysis both of a few arbitration rules and some data from real arbitral proceedings shows great reliance on the arbitrator’s discretion and use of common sense, which (...) is in line with the idea itself of arbitration. Moreover, the high degree of power autonomy enjoyed by the arbitrator during the whole procedure derives from the presupposition that the parties accept the arbitrator’s personal opinion and final judgment and from the fact that the majority of the disputes in international commercial arbitration are of a technical and complicated nature. The analysis also shows that the legal background of most arbitrators tends to surface even when they are involved in alternative dispute resolution proceedings and is clearly visible in the orderly allocation of turns and the strict control over the procedures to be followed. Especially when arbitrators are lawyers or judges, they tend to promote a feeling of belonging to the same professional community, which induces a greater spirit of cooperation and a lowering of the control level. (shrink)

Out-of-court proceedings or alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is a peaceful, voluntary alternative method for settling disputes without litigation in the court. ADR institutions usually use a third party to help the consumer and the trader to reach a solution. The main purpose of this article is to share the main insights and experience about the out-of-court proceedings in various countries and European Union Member States, to discuss the most important problems concerning ADR and propose possible solutions of these problems. First (...) of all, in this article, ADR is presented and its main advantages are outlined. For example, ADR institutions are indeed a low-cost and quick alternative for consumers for settling disputes with businesses. ADR mechanisms are highly diverse. There are public and private institutions as well as institutions established on the basis of cooperation between the public sector and the industry or consumer organizations and the industry. Although there is a high correlation between the nature of the institution and the funding, i.e. private institutions are usually financed by the industry and public institutions by public funds, ADR bodies established by public law can also be financed by the industry (especially in highly regulated markets). In the majority of the institutions, the participation of the industry in the ADR procedure is voluntary. (shrink)

This article focuses on the effects of nonbinding recommendations on bargaining outcomes. Recommendations are theorized to have two effects: they can create a focal point for final bargaining positions, and they can decrease outcome uncertainty should dispute persist. While the focal point effect may lower dispute rates, the uncertainty reduction effect is predicted to do the opposite for risk-averse bargainers. Which of these effects dominates is of critical importance in the design of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures, which are (...) increasingly utilized in a variety of settings. We theoretically examine the effects of recommendations on the contract zone using a framework which allows bargainers’ final positions to influence a binding outcome should negotiations fail. This provides a more stringent test of focal points than previously considered. We also present data from controlled laboratory experiments consistent with our model. Recommendations are empirically shown to influence final bargaining positions and negotiated settlement values. In fact, recommendations significantly reduce dispute rates, even where they are completely ignored in final-stage arbitration. This highlights a potentially significant role for the use of nonbinding procedures, such as mediation, as a preliminary stage in more efficient ADR procedures. (shrink)

In the absence of effective judicial remediation mechanisms after business-related human rights violations, companies themselves are expected to establish remediation procedures for affected victims and communities. This is a challenge for both companies and victims since comprehensive company-based grievance mechanisms are currently missing. In this paper, we explore how companies can provide effective remediation after human rights violations. Accordingly, we critically assess two different approaches to conflict resolution, alternative dispute resolution and restorative justice, for their potential to provide dialogue-based, (...) non-judicial remediation. We argue that remedy through agreement-driven ADR mechanisms risks marginalizing the interests and concerns of victims and affected community members, particularly in weak institutional contexts. Hence, we develop a dialogue-driven framework for corporate remediation of human rights violations grounded on RJ principles. This restorative framework provides a comprehensive CGM that focuses on the harms and needs of victims and aims at restoring justice through restorative dialogue. Based on a prompt discovery and a thorough investigation of the grievance, companies should design and prepare the remediation process together with victims, offenders and affected community members. Through restorative dialogue with the affected parties about the circumstances and impacts of the wrongdoing, companies can repair the harm, regain legitimacy amongst stakeholders as well as transform their business practices to avoid future human rights violations. (shrink)

Mediation in a legal sense is a means of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Having evolved in the USA in the last half of 20th century the procedure is growing in popularity and proliferation all over the world. Many countries enacted particular legislation, and others included relevant articles into Civil and/or Criminal Procedure Codes. Howbeit, lawyers are to be aware of mediation and roles they may play within the process. Law school curriculum drafters face the challenge of including a new up-to-date (...) course in mediation into busy and very full academic programmes. Analysis of existing instructing practice showed that in Anglo-American law schools mediation teaching is a part of clinical legal education. As for European countries, there is a broad range of scenarios and no established experience. Recognition of communicative skills as key skills for mediators prompts the use of a CLIL approach in structuring such a course. Listening, reframing, summarising, questioning are skills to be mastered by law-students both in a foreign language and their mother tongue. Language teachers are in charge of this part of the course while law teachers can work out text contents built on the branches of law mediators deal with more often (family law, employment law, contracts, etc.). Moreover, some texts may cover mediation law in a home country and abroad. Another important factor to take into account is a career path chosen by a law-student – if s/he is going to become a mediator or a lawyer securing clients in mediation. Role plays and scenarios are an integral part of the course. Moreover, the course developed can serve as an introduction to internship in a law clinic. (shrink)

Financial services have a very significant impact on and meaning to the daily life and welfare of consumers. The spectrum of these types of services is very broad, and their regulation is also changing both at EU and national (Member State) level. In order to implement the main or the most relevant EU level goals, such as high level consumer rights protection, consumer trust in business sector, proper and effective functioning of the EU internal market it is essential to ensure (...) clear and sufficient legal regulation, establish responsibility of the services providers, consumer rights and duties as well as promote, seek for the more effective, faster and cheaper ways of solving consumer and business sector disputes. The authors of this article support the idea that the abovementioned goals can be achieved by close and more fruitful cooperation between the EU and national competent authorities, participation in various ad hoc expert working groups, committees or EUwide networks, such as FIN-NET. This article reflects general ideas about the problems arising in the financial consumer services sector, the activity of the EU and national institutions, seeking to ensure fair and transparent provision of such services to consumers, analysis of alternative dispute resolution (hereinafter – the ADR) methods and the good practice of their application in the EU Member States. This article highly supports the application of alternative, nonjudicial procedures and broader application of the means of selfregulation, such as codes of conduct. (shrink)

Energy services have a particularly significant impact on the daily life and welfare of consumers. The importance of such services is high, and their regulation is also changing both at the EU and Member States level, especially after the adoption of the Third Energy Package1, which is focused on improving the operation of retail markets to yield real benefits for both electricity and gas consumers. In order to implement the main or the most relevant goal of the EU, such as (...) high level of consumer rights protection, resulting in consumer trust in business sector, proper and effective functioning of the EU internal market etc., it is essential to ensure clear and sufficient legal regulation, establish responsibility of the services providers, consumer rights and duties as well as promote more effective, faster and cheaper ways of solving consumer and business disputes. The authors of this article feel the lack of scientific analysis on this issue. Despite its importance, discussions take place at political or practical level, but no recent analyses exist as to why energy services sector is so fragmented and how it affects different conditions or rights of consumers in various Member States. This article also clearly supports the idea that the above-mentioned goals can be achieved by close and more fruitful cooperation between the EU and national competent authorities, participation in various ad hoc expert working groups and committees, such as the Vulnerable Consumers Working Group. This article reflects general ideas about the problems arising in the energy consumer services sector, the activity of the EU and national institutions, seeking to ensure fair and transparent provision of such services to consumers, it also contains an analysis of alternative dispute resolution (hereinafter – the ADR) methods and good practice of their application in the EU Member States. This article highly supports the application of alternative procedures in the field of energy services and sees them as a possibility to minimise increasing consumer problems, e.g. a new phenomenon – consumer energy poverty in the EU, which is defined as the situation where a household is unable to access a socially and materially necessitated level of energy services at home and pay for the provided services. (shrink)

The Nature of This Work Out Philosophy is a collection of our basic notions concerning the world and our way of considering it. For this reason, the book, ...

al-Masāʼil al-qudsīyah -- Mutashābihāt al-Qurʼān -- Ajwibat al-masāʼil.

In this article, we explore the concept of African communitarianism and reflect on its potential value for ecojustice education as a localised response to the wider ecological crises that i...

Sadr al-Din Muhammad Shirazi (1572-1640), more commonly called Mulla Sadra, was one of the grand scholars of later-period Islamic philosophy and has grown to become one of the best-known Muslim philosophers. Iksir al-'arifin, or Elixir of the Gnostics, is unique among Sadra's writings in that it reworks and amplifies an earlier Persian work, the Jawidan-nama ( Book of the Everlasting ) by Afdal al-Din Kashani, or Baba Afdal. The underlying theme of Sadra's amplification is emblematic of Muslim philosophy: the importance (...) of self-knowledge in an individual's journey of "Origin and Return," the soul's origins with God and its eventual return to Him. Everything, Sadra says, is on such a path, gradually disengaging from the material world and returning to a transcendent essence--all leading to a final fruition in which everything in the universe returns to God and finds permanent happiness. Philosophy, Sadra argues, is the most direct means to self-knowledge--and thus the best tool for navigating this journey. (shrink)

jild-i 1. Ittiṣāf al-māhīyah bil-wujūd, al-tashkhkhus, Sarayān al-wujūd ajūbah al-masāʼil li-baʻḍ al-khallān, Shawāhid al-rubūbīyah, al-Mizāj -- jild-i 2. Ḥashar al-ashyāʼ, al-Ḥasharīyah, Khalq al-aʻmāl, al-Qaḍāʼ wa-al-qadar, al-Maʻād al-jismānī -- jild-i 3. Iksīr al-ʻārifīn fī maʻrifah ṭarīq al-ḥaqq wa-al-yaqīn al-wāridāt al-qalbīyah fī maʻrifah al-rubūbīyah -- jild-i 4. al-Ḥikmah al-ʻarshīyah, al-Masāʼil al-qudsīyah, al-Mashāʻir, Mathnawī --.

Islamic philosophy; Shiites prospect; early works to 1800.

Islamic philosophy and creation (Islam) from early works to 1800.

Facsimile of miscellaneous Persian and Arabic texts in Mullā Ṣadrā's handwriting.

al-Masāʼil al-qudsīyah -- Mutashābihāt al-Qurʼān -- Ajwibat al-masāʼil.