Many discussions and tensions exist with regards to the ‘who’ and the ‘how’ of mediation. Who is the better fit for the job? Should it be lawyers, who have claimed the field since ADR has originated some decades ago? Or should we entrust the function more into the hands of psychologists who are trained and educated in the science of human interaction and communication? Both perspectives may also impact the ‘how’, style or methodology of the mediation, be it facilitative or more evaluating. In this article it is argued that both perspectives, lawyers, and psychologists alike, facilitating and evaluating, offer an added value and may contribute to a more appropriate conflict management. We can create a win-win through a more pluralistic approach of both the who and the how of mediation, both externally and internally. Collaboration is key. For all those reasons, co-mediation may oftentimes present a useful approach to managing the conflicts at hand.

On 16 December 2022, the Belgian Federal Mediation Commission issued the new Code of Conduct for Accredited Mediators. This code violates Belgian statute law and must therefore not be applied by Belgian judges. The Code more specifically prohibits Belgian accredited mediators to apply evaluative mediation techniques and to apply other fees schemes than those based on an hourly rate. These prohibitions violate European and Belgian mediation law as well as European and Belgian competition law.

UNCITRAL has recently elaborated a number of new instruments in the field of mediation, both for commercial mediation and for investment mediation: Mediation Rules (2021), Notes on Mediation (2021), Recommendations to assist mediation centres and other interested bodies with regard to mediation under the UNCITRAL Mediation Rules (2022), UNCITRAL Model provisions for International Investment Disputes (2023), UNCITRAL Guidelines on Mediation for International Investment Disputes (2023). Some of these instruments need to be adopted by States in order to become legally enforceable, but other instruments do not need to be adopted by States and can be agreed between the parties. These different instruments are briefly outlined in this contribution.

This contribution sheds a light on the context and problem of the doctoral research conducted by Amber Boes under supervision of Professor A.-L. Verbeke and Professor B. Tilleman on mediation in shareholder conflicts. The research is designed to answer the question how mediation should be integrated in the existing legal framework to remedy shareholder conflicts.