When does mediation arise?
As Kolb points out (cited by Boqué, 2003), ironically, it is “the second oldest profession in the world” when referring to the task of mediators, in the sense that, at the same moment in which the first conflict arose , the first mediators appeared to advise the use of reason over the use of force. Perelló (cited in Boqué, 2003) indicates that “the oldest documented mediation that is preserved is from four thousand years ago in Mesopotamia, when a Sumerian governor was able to avoid a war due to the dispute over some territories” (pp. 15-16) .
Following Holler and Jennings (cited in Grover, 1996), the history of mediation to resolve conflicts emerges in the United States and refers, more specifically, to its use in the labor movement. Since the Arbitration Law of 1888, both workers and bosses have routinely resorted to neutral third parties as a method by which complaints, both contractual and disciplinary, can be reasonably heard and resolved. From then until today, legislation has been legislated at the national and international level based on new social demands and the “renewed” characteristics that conflicts have acquired.
Meaning, therefore, that there are diverse areas of mediation in which its pacifying potential is being satisfactorily projected, as a complementary tool to traditional solutions, in our days:
The civil mediation, used mainly in the family sphere, can also be applied successfully in disagreements over contracts, commercial relationships, in the field of consumption and in that of horizontal property.
In the criminal mediation, Victim and offender, through a process of dialogue and confidential communication, conducted and directed by an impartial mediator, recognize each other's capacity to participate in the resolution of the conflict derived from the crime.
What are the areas of mediation?
As the Solutio Litis Foundation describes to us (2018), the areas of mediation are the following:
- family mediation: It is the mediation that is applied in cases of annulment, separation and divorce.
- Community mediation: Deals with conflicts in the context of social relations or neighborhood conflicts.
- School mediation: Deals with the resolution of problems between students, between them and the teachers, or between the latter and the parents.
- Intrajudicial mediation: It is one that begins with a judicial procedure in which the Judge proposes the interruption of the process to advise the parties to go to mediation to resolve the dispute.
- Sports mediation: It is responsible for managing conflicts in sports organizations, in the relationships between them and athletes or in competitions.
- Health mediation: Works on conflict in health institutions between medical personnel, this and non-health personnel or in relation to patients.
- Commercial mediation: It addresses the divergences that professionals and companies encounter in relation to their economic activity. It is related to the bankruptcy mediation that will be mentioned below.
- Mortgage mediation: It is that self-composing dispute resolution process, in which, with the intervention of a third party, the debtor and the mortgage creditor try to reach an agreement that allows the former to continue making payment of the loan or alleviate the over-indebtedness and trying to preserve the use by the debtor of the habitual residence.
- Intercultural mediation: It facilitates understanding between the native population and the immigrant population to guarantee coexistence.
- bankruptcy mediation: Law 14/2013 on support for entrepreneurs and their internationalization has introduced a new figure, that of the so-called bankruptcy mediator, which is inserted in two reference coordinates. Firstly, it is mandatory to be present at the request of the interested party, the debtor, to attempt an extrajudicial payment agreement and, secondly, it is configured from a possible double function, that of the specialized mediator, within Law 5 /2012, of July 6, of mediation and that of the possible bankruptcy administrator before, where appropriate, the new consecutive bankruptcy institute of 242 of the Bankruptcy Law.
Specialize in the most demanded areas
In short, the range and possibilities of application are as wide as the fields and situations in which differences of opinions, controversies, disputes, conflicts or confrontations can occur.
Regardless of the area in which it is developed, the fact that mediation manages to balance the power between the parties establishes the optimal conditions for achieving successful negotiations and lasting agreements, which is reflected in the decrease in litigation and the increase in peace. social (Calcaterra, 2006).
At our School, we have been training mediators for years in the different areas in which mediation is applicable: mediation in traffic accidents, in the educational field, labor mediation, in international trade, in consumer matters... Learn about our different programs here, work in mediation and specialize in the most in-demand areas of the sector.
