The need for an international family mediation convention

It was hugely disappointing that the Singapore Mediation Convention specifically excluded family law disputes. The explanation given was that it was born out of commercial considerations and never intended to be for mediation in of itself.  Tagging family mediation onto the Singapore convention will not work although undoubtedly the benefits from the drafting of that convention should be taken into consideration.

This Project would like to examine the creation of an international family mediation convention, probably under the auspices of the UN as was the Singapore convention, and to run alongside the Singapore Convention.  This is likely only when several of the existing and future planned areas of work are underway and have had global acceptance. 

Such a convention would need to bring together the planned discussions about the status in law of the outcome from mediation although it is worth observing that the EU Maintenance Regulation specifically embraced two different processes of recognition and enforcement of maintenance orders namely those from applicable law countries and those from local law countries.  This might be a model for a Convention looking at outcomes which are immediately open and binding and those which are awaiting legal approval and blessing.

Anyone interested in carrying out preliminary work in this area is invited to get in touch with us.