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After decades of focus on harmonization, which for too many represents no more than Western legal dominance and a largely homogeneous arbitration practitioner community, this ground-breaking book explores the increasing attention being paid to the need for greater diversity in the international arbitration ecosystem. It examines diversity in all its forms, investigating how best to develop an international arbitral order that is not just tolerant of diversity, but that sustains and promotes diversity in concert with harmonized practices.Offering a wide range of viewpoints from a diverse and inclusive group of authors, Diversity in International Arbitration is a comprehensive and insightful resource on a controversial, fast-moving subject. Chapters present arguments from practitioner, academic, institutional and governmental perspectives that identify the underlying issues and address the various ways in which the goal of diversity, whether demographic, legal, cultural, professional, linguistic, or philosophical, can be reached.This book's analysis of the contemporary state of diversity in international arbitration will be a crucial read for researchers in the field. Practitioners and policy makers will also find its discussion of best practices and innovative initiatives for enhancing diversity to be invaluable.

This thought-provoking book examines whether regional centres associated with global legal institutions facilitate expanded citizen engagement in global soft law making. Through an analysis of empirical research into the role of decentralized soft law making in the East Asian region, it investigates the influence of such regional centres in overcoming representational deficits in the design of cross-border dispute settlement norms.Shahla F. Ali analyses survey data, in-depth case studies and UNCITRAL participation records to provide a comprehensive view of the contributions of Asia Pacific states in the development and refinement of UNCITRAL dispute settlement instruments. She argues that this has corresponded with the emergence of a new form of decentralized transnational legal ordering, advancing representation and legal innovation at both regional and global levels. The book concludes that these findings support the expansion of regional centres in areas with historically limited representation in global law making.Students, scholars and practitioners of transnational dispute resolution and comparative law will find this book to be critical reading. Its identification of best practices and law and policy recommendations will also be of interest to those working in global legislative design and policy.

As judiciaries advance, exploring how court mediation programs can provide opportunities for party-directed reconciliation whilst ensuring access to formal legal channels requires careful investigation. Court Mediation Reform explores comparative empirical findings in order to examine the association between court mediation structure and perceptions of justice, efficiency and confidence in courts. This unique study draws on an eighty-three person survey as well as case studies from ten global mediation jurisdictions including Australia, France, Hong Kong, India, and the United States. Given the highly contextual nature of court mediation programs, the book highlights the achievements, challenges and lessons learned in the implementation of mediation programs for general civil claims. In so doing, the study identifies that positive achievements are largely dependent on multiple factors including the functioning of the civil litigation system, the capacities of the mediators, safeguards against bias, participant education, and cultural and institutional support.This book will be of interest to both scholars and practitioners of law, civil justice, mediation, comparative law and dispute resolution. It will also be of use to judiciaries and policy makers looking to advance court mediation programs.

With growing awareness of the devastation caused by major natural disasters, alongside integration of governance and technology networks, the parameters of humanitarian aid are becoming more global. At the same time, humanitarian instruments are increasingly recognizing the centrality of local participation. Drawing on six case studies and a survey of sixty-nine members of the relief sector, this book suggests that the key to the efficacy of post-disaster recovery is the primacy given to local actors in the management, direction and design of relief programs. Where local partnership and knowledge generation and application is ongoing, cohesive, meaningful and inclusive, disaster relief efforts are more targeted, cost-effective, efficient and timely. Governing Disasters: Engaging Local Populations in Humanitarian Relief examines the interplay between law, governance and collaborative decision making with international, state, private sector and community actors in order to understand the dynamics of a global decentralized yet coordinated process of post-disaster humanitarian assistance.

Nearly all major global financial centres have developed systems of consumer financial dispute resolution. Such systems aim to assist parties to resolve a growing number of monetary disputes with financial institutions. How governments and self-regulatory organizations design and administer financial dispute resolution mechanisms in the context of increasingly turbulent financial markets is a new area for research and practice. Consumer Financial Dispute Resolution in a Comparative Context presents comparative research about the development and design of these mechanisms in East Asia, North America and Europe. Using a comparative methodology and drawing on empirical findings from a multi-jurisdictional survey, Shahla F. Ali examines the emergence of global principles that influence the design of financial dispute resolution models, considers the structural variations between the ombuds and arbitration systems, and offers practical proposals for reform.

How diverse cultures approach conflict in the context of the integration of global markets is a new arena for research and practice. To date, most of the research on international arbitration has focused exclusively on Western models of arbitration as practiced in Europe and North America. While such studies have accurately reflected the geographic foci of international arbitration practice in the late twentieth century, the number of international arbitrations conducted in East Asia has recently been growing steadily and on par with growth in Western regions. Resolving Disputes in the Asia-Pacific Region presents empirical research about the attitudes and perceptions of over 115 arbitrators, judges, lawyers and members of the rapidly expanding arbitration community in China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia as well as North America and Europe. The book covers both international commercial arbitration and'alternative'techniques such as mediation, providing an empirical analysis of how both types of dispute resolution are conducted in the East Asian context. The book examines the history and cultural context surrounding preferred methods of dispute resolution in the East Asian region and sheds light on the various approaches to international arbitration across these diverse regions. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of international arbitration and dispute resolution, comparative and Asian law, as well as anyone dealing with potential conflict in international business relationships in East Asia.