Practical Training

Lecturers:  Lecturers: William Meuwissen and Phillipe Billiet

Course Content
In practice the course is much more fluid in style than is described below. We have consciously mirrored the mediation process which, despite of having a structure, is entirely flexible to meet the needs of the participants.

1. The Mediation path Part I – It takes two to make a truth.
   • Date : 9th Sept -> Ist half, 9:00 – 13:00 and II nd half, 14:00 – 18:00
   • Duration of the course: 8 hours
2. The Mediation path Part II – A work which requires intelligence and concentration.
   • Date : 10th Sept -> Ist half, 9:00 – 13:00 and II nd half , 14:00 – 18:00
   • Duration of the course: 8 hours
3. The Mediation path Part III – Certain Liberation.
   • Date : 12th Sept -> Ist half, 9:00 – 13:00 and II nd half, 14:00 – 18:00
   • Duration of the course: 8 hours
4. Communication in Mediation: Non -verbal communication and questioning – Good questions outrank easy answers.
   • Date : 13th Sept -> Ist half, 9:00 – 13:00 and II nd half , 14:00 – 18:00
   • Duration of the course: 8 hours
5. Emotions in Mediation – Choosing is a little dying
   • Date : 14th Sept -> Ist half, 9:00 – 13:00 and II nd half, 14:00 – 18:00
   • Duration of the course: 8 hours

Overall topics to be covered in Practical Training

• Role of the mediator
• The place for mediation in business disputes and organizational disputes
• Elements of mediation
• Introduction to essential skills and demonstration with class involvement
• The paradox of mediation practice
• Managing the mediation process
• Stages of the mediation process
• Exercise – skills development and preparation for getting people to the table and opening meeting
• Skills for exploring the needs and interests of parties
• Private meeting exercise/practice
• Reasons and emotions in the role of decision making
• The third party dynamic
• What is successful negotiation? Mediator’s role in negotiation
• Negotiation: skills and practice
• Skills for managing clients and development for pace and momentum
• Self-Managing/ managing others, managing case reviews, assessment guidance

Theoretical Discussion and Analysis

1. The stages in the mediation process
2. International Mediation
3. Theory and practice of contract law in Europe
4. The function of party-experts and party counsels in civil and commercial mediation
5. Analytical study of conflict resolutions
6. Theory and practice of EU law and mediation Acts
7. Theory and practice of negotiations
8. EU ethics on mediation (I)
9. EU ethics on mediation (II)
10. Interventions in specific situations

A. The stages in the mediation process

Lecturer: Linda Reijerkerk

• Sub-topics: The mediation procedure, functions of the mediator, differences between informing and advising, interventions (e.g. caucus)
• Date : 05th September -> Ist half, 8:30 – 13:00 hrs, and II nd half, 14:00 – 18:30 hr
• Duration of the course: 9 hours
• Specified content of training/lecture: This course will distinguish the several steps employed in mediation, from establishing the facts, common interests, the options, and the result. It will also discuss caucusing and the use of shuttle diplomacy.
• Teaching method: PowerPoint presentation, lecture
• Course materials and guidance for self-study: Syllabus will be provided outlining course materials and a guided self-study

B. International Mediation

Lecturer: Annette van Riemsdijk

• Sub-topics: Cultural impasses, empathy, different styles of conducting business, Western vs. Communitarian views of mediation
• Date : 06th September -> 8:00 – 12:30 hrs
• Duration of the course: 4.5 hours
• Specified content of training/lecture: This course will look at the specificities of intercultural mediation, from cultural impasse to the visible and invisible aspects of culture and prejudice.
• Teaching method: PowerPoint presentation, lecture
• Course materials and guidance for self-study: Syllabus will be provided outlining course materials and a guided self-study

C. Theory and practice of contract law in Europe

Lecturer: Simon Wesley

• Sub-topics: Place of mediation, status and importance of mediation agreements, status of interim and final reports in mediations, status of a determination agreement.
• Date : 06th September -> 14:00 – 18:00 hrs
• Duration of the course: 4 hours
• Specified content of training/lecture: This course looks at contract law in the EU how to write proper mediation clauses that are enforceable. Students will learn which agreements have to be written, what kind of content has to be included in the mediation agreement, who makes the settlement agreement, and their respective consequences on the mediation.
• Teaching method: PowerPoint presentation, lecture
• Course materials and guidance for self-study: Syllabus will be provided outlining course materials and a guided self-study

D. The function of party-experts and party counsels in civil and commercial mediation

Lecturer: Avi Schneebalg

• Sub-topics: Power and influencing, external advisors
• Date : 07th September -> 09:00 – 13:00 hrs
• Duration of the course: 4 hours
• Specified content of training/lecture: This course examines ethical and strategic issues involving the role of counsel and experts in mediation. The subjects considered include the duty of counsel to advise clients regarding their mediation options, reconciling the roles of advocate and negotiator, the extent to which lawyers as opposed their clients should take the lead role, how much of one’s case to reveal in mediation (including whether to bring experts and other witnesses), experts’ duties to the court versus their duties to the parties, ensuring that negotiators have sufficient authority, representing clients who do not wish to settle on principle, lying in negotiations, and maintaining confidentiality. Participants may wish to read Rubin, “A Causerie on Lawyers’ Ethics in Negotiation,” Louisiana Law Review 35:577 (1975) in advance.
• Teaching method: PowerPoint presentation, lecture
• Course materials and guidance for self-study: Syllabus will be provided outlining course materials and a guided self-study

E. Analytical study of conflict resolutions

Lecturer: Frank Fleerackers

• Sub-topics: Methods of negotiations, conditions for mediation, creativity for conflict management
• Date : 07th September -> 14:00 – 18:00 hrs
• Duration of the course: 4 hours
• Specified content of training/lecture: Fleerackers argues against rationalized views of law as communication, by heralding an interactive, case driven and interdisciplinary (ICI) approach to surpass the decay of contemporary legal thought. He focuses on the affective/effective aspects of law in order to update legal discourse for a changing world of difference, embracing a dynamic concept of legal certainty. At its core, legal theory is legal practice. And legal practice in all its forms is case driven, directed towards an effective cohabitation of an increasingly multi-cultural, multi-moral and multi-individual society. Conclusively, Fleerackers argues for a legal education that teaches lawyers to master interactive processes and turn these into frames of social cohesion, thus upholding legal discourse through an underlying cogency from within: an interactive, case driven and interdisciplinary (ICI) legal attitude.
• Teaching method: PowerPoint presentation, lecture
• Course materials and guidance for self-study: Syllabus will be provided outlining course materials and a guided self-study

F. Theory and practice of EU law and mediation Acts

Lecturer: Johan Billiet

• Sub-topics: Legality and reciprocity, drafting a mediation report, drafting an establishment agreement, indications and contra-indications for mediation, mediation acts in Europe (e.g. differences between voluntary and judicial mediation, recognized and non-recognized mediators, confidentiality, legal aid, ethics, etc.), theory and practice of European national contract laws.
• Date : 08th September -> 09:00 – 13:00 hrs
• Duration of the course: 4 hours
• Specified content of training/lecture: This course will explore global trends in mediation, regional perspectives and recent developments in mediation. It will focus particularly on the EU Commission directive 2008/52/EC and its effects the culture of mediation in Europe.
• Teaching method: PowerPoint presentation, lecture
• Course materials and guidance for self-study: Syllabus provided outlining course materials and a guided self-study

G. Theory and practice of negotiations

Lecturer: Frank Fleerackers

• Sub-topics: Sociologic aspects of mediation, theories of conflicts, theories of mediation and other forms of ADR, theory of communications, communications between parties in a conflict.
• Date : 08th September -> 14:00 – 18:00 hrs
• Duration of the course: 4 hours
• Specified content of training/lecture: Negotiation and mediation training opens the way to a new approach of meaningful legal analysis as a reflection of human interaction. According to Fleerackers, lawyers direct the interaction between conflicting parties by effectively analyzing the effects of dynamic conflict affectors as well as the effects of different interactions on these affectors and the related conflict positions. Hence, lawyers may be educated as paradigmatic negotiators and mediators, as they ideally combine knowledge of the law with a conflict-related attitude and experience. Negotiation and mediation training may provide contemporary legal thinking with a necessary interactive format for legal education and practice, as a means to pursue and uphold legal effectiveness.
• Teaching method: PowerPoint presentation, lecture
• Course materials and guidance for self-study: Syllabus will be provided outlining course materials and a guided self-study

H. EU ethics on mediation (I)

Lecturer: Jermy Lack

• Sub-topics: EU voluntary code of conduct for mediators, neutrality and impartiality, rules and codes of conduct of the recognizing mediation centers, general mediation principles (ethics and philosophies), development of a basis behavior (respect, trust, servitude, reliability, interest for people and their problems, passion for process support, tolerance, ambiguity, and neutrality).
• Date : 15th September -> 09:00 – 13:00 hrs
• Duration of the course: 4 hours
• Specified content of training/lecture: This course will examine the EU Directive on mediation in detail and the ethical rules in European mediation and European Code of Conduct for Mediators
• Teaching method: PowerPoint presentation, lecture
• Course materials and guidance for self-study: Syllabus provided outlining course materials and a guided self-study.

I. EU ethics on mediation (II)

Lecturer: Jeremy Lack

• Sub-topics: Ethical dilemmas for mediation, knowledge regarding confidentiality and secrecy, professional liabilities of mediators
• Date : 15th September -> 14:00 – 18:00 hrs
• Duration of the course: 4 hours
• Specified content of training/lecture: This course will begin discussing the fundamental role that mediators play in the larger dispute settlement process, and the ethical guidelines they must follow in order to ensure that the interests of the parties are protected if additional proceedings are necessary. It will look at the advantages and disadvantages of med-arb and arb-med procedures and how to avoid conflicts of interest.
• Teaching method: PowerPoint presentation, lecture
• Course materials and guidance for self-study: Syllabus will be provided outlining course materials and a guided self-study

J. Interventions in specific situations

Lecturer: Philipp-Howell Richardson

• Sub-topics: The mediation procedure, functions of the mediator
• Date : 16th September -> Ist half, 9:00 – 13:00 hrs, and II nd half, 14:00 – 18:30 hr
• Duration of the course: 8 hours
• Specified content of training/lecture: Students will learn the negotiation styles of different types of people, such as those driven to fight, ignore, escapes, and solves a problem. They will also look at distributional, oppositional, and hard negotiations and how to apply them. They will learn the eye-for-eye technique and explore the Harvard negotiation model. The four aspects of communication: content, expressive, relational, and appellative. Verbal, nonverbal, and metacommunications will be examined and their uses during different kinds of conflicts. Students will learn how to determine the causes and sources of conflict and identify the psychological escalation mechanism.
• Teaching method: PowerPoint presentation, lecture
• Course materials and guidance for self-study: Syllabus will be provided outlining course materials and a guided self-study