Economic analysis of certain legal solutions in the Draft Mediation Act

The Mediation Act has been applied in the Republic of Serbia since 2005. In the past period, the application of this Act has pointed out to a number of drawbacks and deficiencies in the system of resolving disputes through mediation. The dominant features of the current mediation system are some ina...

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Main Author: Mojašević Aleksandar
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Faculty of Law, Niš 2014-01-01
Series:Zbornik Radova Pravnog Fakulteta u Nišu
Subjects:
Online Access:http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0350-8501/2014/0350-85011466257M.pdf
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author Mojašević Aleksandar
author_facet Mojašević Aleksandar
author_sort Mojašević Aleksandar
collection DOAJ
description The Mediation Act has been applied in the Republic of Serbia since 2005. In the past period, the application of this Act has pointed out to a number of drawbacks and deficiencies in the system of resolving disputes through mediation. The dominant features of the current mediation system are some inadequate legal solutions, poor organization and insufficient preparation of the courts to internalize mediation, failure to provide relevant information about mediation to litigants and other participants in the judicial process, insufficient judicial training and education of lawyers and parties on mediation and other ADR methods, etc. Considering that the primary purpose of mediation is to diminish the litigation caseload and reduce the costs of court proceedings, the basic goal of introducing mediation into the Serbian legal system has not been accomplished. In order to improve the mediation system, the Serbian authorities launched a public debate in 2010 on designing a new legislative act which would eliminate the shortcomings of previous act and improve the efficiency of mediation. After nearly four years, the extensive debate and confrontation of different mediation concepts led to adopting a new Draft Mediation Act in 2013. As compared to the applicable 2005 Mediation Act, the Draft Mediation Act contains some innovations, such as the enforceability of a mediation agreement under specific conditions and the opportunity of introducing mandatory mediation in some cases. In this paper, the author analyzes the above issues on the basis of findings of economic theory and the results of the empirical study on the efficiency of mediation in Serbia in civil matters. In this context, the author argues that the achievement of the above objectives (to reduce the caseload and legal costs] calls for establishing a sustainable mediation system. In addition to instituting good legal solutions (such as mandatory mediation], the system should be supported by joint efforts and financial resources of responsible institutions and individuals. In a nutshell, mediation may come to life only if the legislative efforts are accompanied by a large-scale social action aimed at promoting this form of dispute resolution.
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spelling doaj.art-70e716f7dfd0472db6ed610a1eb1de612022-12-22T00:21:54ZengFaculty of Law, NišZbornik Radova Pravnog Fakulteta u Nišu0350-85012560-31162014-01-0120146625727410.5937/zrpfni1466257M0350-85011466257MEconomic analysis of certain legal solutions in the Draft Mediation ActMojašević Aleksandar0Univeristy of Niš, Faculty of Law, Niš, SerbiaThe Mediation Act has been applied in the Republic of Serbia since 2005. In the past period, the application of this Act has pointed out to a number of drawbacks and deficiencies in the system of resolving disputes through mediation. The dominant features of the current mediation system are some inadequate legal solutions, poor organization and insufficient preparation of the courts to internalize mediation, failure to provide relevant information about mediation to litigants and other participants in the judicial process, insufficient judicial training and education of lawyers and parties on mediation and other ADR methods, etc. Considering that the primary purpose of mediation is to diminish the litigation caseload and reduce the costs of court proceedings, the basic goal of introducing mediation into the Serbian legal system has not been accomplished. In order to improve the mediation system, the Serbian authorities launched a public debate in 2010 on designing a new legislative act which would eliminate the shortcomings of previous act and improve the efficiency of mediation. After nearly four years, the extensive debate and confrontation of different mediation concepts led to adopting a new Draft Mediation Act in 2013. As compared to the applicable 2005 Mediation Act, the Draft Mediation Act contains some innovations, such as the enforceability of a mediation agreement under specific conditions and the opportunity of introducing mandatory mediation in some cases. In this paper, the author analyzes the above issues on the basis of findings of economic theory and the results of the empirical study on the efficiency of mediation in Serbia in civil matters. In this context, the author argues that the achievement of the above objectives (to reduce the caseload and legal costs] calls for establishing a sustainable mediation system. In addition to instituting good legal solutions (such as mandatory mediation], the system should be supported by joint efforts and financial resources of responsible institutions and individuals. In a nutshell, mediation may come to life only if the legislative efforts are accompanied by a large-scale social action aimed at promoting this form of dispute resolution.http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0350-8501/2014/0350-85011466257M.pdfDraft Mediation Actmediationefficiencymediation agreementcosts
spellingShingle Mojašević Aleksandar
Economic analysis of certain legal solutions in the Draft Mediation Act
Zbornik Radova Pravnog Fakulteta u Nišu
Draft Mediation Act
mediation
efficiency
mediation agreement
costs
title Economic analysis of certain legal solutions in the Draft Mediation Act
title_full Economic analysis of certain legal solutions in the Draft Mediation Act
title_fullStr Economic analysis of certain legal solutions in the Draft Mediation Act
title_full_unstemmed Economic analysis of certain legal solutions in the Draft Mediation Act
title_short Economic analysis of certain legal solutions in the Draft Mediation Act
title_sort economic analysis of certain legal solutions in the draft mediation act
topic Draft Mediation Act
mediation
efficiency
mediation agreement
costs
url http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0350-8501/2014/0350-85011466257M.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT mojasevicaleksandar economicanalysisofcertainlegalsolutionsinthedraftmediationact