The creation of the ASEAN Inter-Governmental Commission on Human Rights marks a substantial step in the history of ASEAN, and an important move towards the recognition and enforcement of human rights. In this note, I’m less concerned with the substantive issues of human rights, but rather with – as the blog title suggests – the [...]
Archive for July, 2009
The Asian/ASEAN way: talking about rights?
Posted in Culture, Dialogue, Rights on July 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Mediation in China – does modernisation spell an end to mediation?
Posted in ADR, Culture, Mediation, Singapore on July 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
For those who have been watching the development of mediation and informal justice over the last three decades, China has provided an endless source of commentary on not only the apparent pervasiveness of mediation but also on the diverse forms of the process. While mediation in China (and Japan, Liberia and elsewhere) has provided early [...]
Let’s [not] talk about it
Posted in ADR, Culture, Mediation on July 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In the introduction to his book Law and Warfare, legal anthropologist Paul Bohannan suggested (p. xii) that “There are basically two forms of conflict resolution: administered rules and fighting. Law and war.” It’s a stark contrast and an interesting provocation; but of course it’s simplistic and it leaves out the other option: talking. And maybe [...]
Mainstreaming mediation – but still more persuasion needed
Posted in ADR, Culture, Mediation, Singapore on July 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
It’s scarcely surprising these days to note the wide range of support for mediation – and indeed to note the degree to which it is litigation that is daubed with the ‘alternative’ tag. It’s even more encouraging to see the degree to which major law firms are not merely using, but also advocating it and [...]
Morality, culture and mediation
Posted in Culture, Mediation on July 16, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Here’s another speculation: a few blogs ago I referred to the work of Richard Nisbett, The Geography of Thought, and others in considering the differences in perceptions that can be broadly and empirically identified between West and East. Nisbett’s work clearly indicates that we do not share the same cognitive or perceptual worlds, even though [...]
Quality, competence and culture
Posted in Culture, Standards on July 14, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This is the first of what’s going to need to be an occasional foray into this question of standards in mediation. It’s not a new question – over at least the last decade, various mediation governmental advisory bodies have sought to deal either with uniform standards or with more specific guidelines on elements of mediation [...]
