MEDIATION: SALRC DISCUSSION PAPER PUBLISHED FOR INPUT

MEDIATION: SALRC DISCUSSION PAPER PUBLISHED FOR INPUT

• 29 January 2025
• Justice & Constitutional Development
• SA Legal Academy

The South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) has called for input by 30 April 2025 on a discussion paper developed as the first step in the process of determining the need for ‘a generic mediation statute’. According to an accompanying media statement, the intention is that the legislation proposed in the discussion paper should be confined to commercial, civil and community mediation. This is noting that the SALRC’s report on mediation in family disputes is now in the process of being finalised for submission to Justice & Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi.

The new discussion paper unpacks various options for the contents of a draft Mediation Bill that would introduce alternative dispute resolution as:

• ‘a standard legal framework for the fair and efficient settlement of disputes through mediation’, and
• a mechanism for:
  • more effectively regulating the ‘mediator profession’
  • regulating the procedure for referring disputes to mediation
  • directing the mediation process’ and
  • enforcing international commercial mediation settlement agreements under the rules of procedure and conditions laid down in the Singapore Convention.

It is envisaged that the availability of mediation as an ‘appropriate’ dispute resolution method would enable the parties to a dispute to ‘resolve their disputes expeditiously and cost-effectively’ – minimising ‘citizen frustration and delays in justice delivery’.

• discussion paper
• media statement

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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