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people are encouraged to wrestle in innovative ways with issues of diversity.
How the field is regulated can determine whether the potential of mediation,
beyond simply resolving a dispute, can be realized.
In many ways, the
concept of a regulatory scheme itself appears antithetical to the larger
potential of mediation.
iii)
Linking mediation to the legal profession may defeat its
transformative and restorative justice visions.
While controls may seem a “natural”
evolution, the burgeoning links to
the legal profession may in fact relegate mediation to the role of handservant
to the formal legal system and its agenda. Mediation may come to be seen
as a specialization of law thus loosing its “alternative” role. In turn, this will
jeopardize the realization of more transformative
goals of mediation, which
have been espoused by many legally trained mediators and others.
Government departments, in particular the Department of Justice, should
weigh heavily the implications of restricting the
practice of mediation to the
law profession. Especially in view of their recent efforts to embrace the
practices of restorative justice. A legal orientation may well reduce mediation
to its least meaningful functions. What is required is a governance philosophy
that mandates the full range of mediation approaches and practitioners.
