Volume 12 – 2019, No. 2

Different studies have affirmed that there is a relationship between trust and success in mediation, with salient literature on the subject being based on studies made in North America. This paper explores the factors that predict the generation of trust through the replication of the studies conducted to date in Spain (the Balearic Islands) and Mexico (Nuevo León). An analysis of the differences between both groups was then made through the application of the Building a Relationship of Trust in Mediation questionnaire designed by Author 1. The obtained results display statistically significant differences in the response patterns of both groups for the factors «the appointment of a mediator by a public authority body and/or recognized service; the parties’ attraction to the mediator; the mediator’s familiarity with the process; managing the mediation process; acknowledging the parties’ expectations; the mediator’s self-confidence; the mediator’s sincerity; the mediator’s legal expertise; understanding and supporting; kindness; highlighting the rules of mediation; and clear frequent communication». In this way, the differences between both countries could be distinguished in matters concerning trust-building in mediation.

The personal care or caring for minor children of separated or divorced couples is a special issue for the rights of families and children when observed in light of the constitutional block of human rights signed by countries in different international treaties, placing with it the gender approaches, the protection of children co-responsibility as crosscutting elements in the current enforcement of the law, in order to take care of the condition of children as rights subjects. For this reason, this theoretical work sought to observe how mechanisms of family mediation and the incorporation of the parenting plan are enforced in Chile, Argentina and Spain in personal care cases, finding a set of similarities in normative and procedural aspects, which allow assessing their contributions in the resolution of conflicts, especially their application to the process of parental responsibility and care, upbringing and protection of children and adolescents from a gender perspective.

This article focuses on Civil Rights Federal Laws that came into force in the United States in the second half of the 20th century, and on some of the mediation programmes established by Federal Public Offices, Federal Courts, and some major companies to enforce these laws. The programmes described are two programmes created by the Employment Equal Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice; a conflict resolution programme designed by the Federal District Court in Texas that includes mediation; and the internal conflict resolution programmes implemented by the United States Postal Service, Halliburton Company and Shell Oil Company, all of which include mediation.

The goal of this study is to analyse, in detail, the comparative law with respect to the principles governing the positivized mediation system in Brazil and Paraguay, and their respective legislations, as an essential instrument to the appropriate administration of Justice and dissemination of the culture of peace. In this paper, we will see that in the Brazilian law, mediation achieved its formal regulation in 2015, thanks to the publication of the Code of Civil Procedure (Act 13,105) and the Act 13,140/2015 of Mediation. Mediation in Paraguay came to existence in 2002, when Act 1879 of Arbitration and Mediation entered into force establishing the method. In this analysis, the primary differences between the laws of the two countries were observed, noting that such standards present innumerable similarities.

Victim-offender mediation is a restorative-justice driven approach in dealing crime that has been shown to be beneficial to both the victims and their offenders in various aspects. However, in many implementations of victim-offender mediation in the past, focus has been given on the direct victim – ignoring other types of individuals that may be affected by the crime. When an offender commits a crime, the offender’s family members are also effectively victimized in various ways, including ostracization by the public, deterioration of relationship, and stress. This makes them a part of victimhood circle that should also be addressed. Furthermore, the involvement of family members in the rehabilitation of offenders is also crucial for the rehabilitation to be effective. These arguments are the basis of this article’s thesis – that family members can be situated on the ‘victims’ side in a victim-offender mediation. However, this article also acknowledges the concerns of past scholars who brought up the possibilities that many restorative-justice driven approaches of crime that are adjusted to a particular context may violate the essence of restoration.