Abstract
Over the past forty years, the approach to legal disputes in England and Wales has
experienced some important changes.
In many instances, mediation, with its
objective of resolving disputes, is favoured over the traditional and adversarial
procedure of litigation.
However, mediation as a concept is not startlingly new. It traces its origins back to
ancient times as a process used in many countries to settle a dispute by the
consensus of the parties. Therefore, a dispute is resolved by the parties reaching
agreement to the terms of settlement. This is an advantage over court litigation
where the parties do not determine the outcome of their dispute. Compared to other
forms of dispute resolution, this advantage stands out in mediation.
Intriguingly, the perspectives of mediators on the practice of family mediation are
relatively unexplored territory. This gap in mediation research contrasts with a wellstocked cross-disciplinary body of literature, mostly from North America which has researched and studied the development and the nature of dispute resolution and
mediation. Such literature includes a range of viewpoints and conclusions on power,
neutrality, coercion, styles and regulation in mediation.
Accordingly, this thesis with its focus on family mediation, seeks to reduce this gap
by supplementing the existing literature. There is now an abundance of knowledge
and practice experience in family mediation. This thesis will put forward the family
mediators’ opinions and my recommendations on how family mediation can be
improved. The family mediators’ views are based on their knowledge and years of
experience as qualified family mediators in England and Wales. This thesis aims to
contribute, through the practitioners’ lens, to some of the important theoretical
issues, discussions and difficulties surrounding family mediation. The further aim of
this thesis is to set out the understanding of family mediators and draw on this to
explore important themes such as: mediation models, child-inclusive mediation,
family mediation training, family mediation regulation, its principles and the nature
of the task. The analysis of these themes will reveal many things, from the
difficulties and demanding tasks in family mediation, through to the satisfaction and
reward that can be felt by family mediators who achieve the parties’ objective of
amicably resolving a family dispute.