'Mediators Are Peacemakers' : Justice Hima Kohli At Judges Conclave On Mediation Education

On 27th November, 2021, Justice Hima Kohli, Supreme Court judge, unveiled the 'Mediation Compendium' at the 1st Judges Conclave on Mediation Education organised by the illustrious E-Mediation Writings (EMW). Briefly outlining the contents of the book, which is the first book on the mediation curriculum to be recommended by the Bar Council of India for LLB courses, she referred to the Compendium as a 'comprehensive referencer' for the law students. The essence of the event was to encourage the dissemination of knowledge of mediation not only to the students of law, but to the people at large. The values of Mahatma Gandhi, that education which empowers people and invigorates them to lay the foundation of peaceful co-existence, should be inculcated in all and sundry, had inspired the team at EMW to come up with the Compendium, which has eighteen chapters and covers the basics of mediation. Views of Justice Kohli on Mediation While unveiling the Mediation Compendium, Justice Hima Kohli (Judge, Supreme Court of India) congratulated the team at EMW for their endeavour to publish a comprehensive book on mediation. Addressing the concept of meditation to be a noble one, wherein the attempt is to make peace between the parties, she referred to the Gospel of Matthew and the speech of Dalai Lama to emphasis on the importance of peacemakers in the world today - "It is stated in the New Testament, in the 9th verse of the 5th Chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that blesseth are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Who could be a better qualified peacemaker than the mediators? His Holiness, the Dalai Lama who had quoted last year in an international mediation conference, who had stated that the planet does not need more successful people, the planet desperately needs peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds. And to my mind mediators eminently qualify as peacemakers."Justice Kohli delineated the basics of mediation, which is a decision making process assisted by the mediator giving ample opportunities to the parties to exert their autonomy- "Mediation, you all know, is a process which is both new in terms of the emergence and the legal arena and old in terms of its timeless universality. In short, mediation is a negotiation conducted with the assistance of the third party, who is the mediator. It assists decision making processes that typically take the form of a facilitated negotiation or dialogue based on the principles of party autonomy, focussed on the choices of parties, their interests, and their needs, rather than their rights or their positions alone. We know its a voluntary process as the parties are not under any compulsion to take a decision and arrive at a settlement. The decision ultimately made is a reflection of their choices and their priorities."Glancing through the chapters, Justice Kohli recognised that the book covers all the essential principles of mediation- "I had a cursory look at the book that was being launched today - it has 18 chapters covering different aspects of mediation starting from explaining the basic concepts of mediation by differentiating conflict and dispute, extensively discussing the needs for alternate dispute resolution. And the processes, stages and different styles of mediation. The publication covers all essential principles of mediation and recognizes it as a positive conflict resolution process. The topics covered range from different styles of mediation to the role of the mediator himself. So, there are chapters on bargaining, negation and problem solving techniques that serve as rudimentary explanations of bargaining techniques, explaining complex techniques and peculiarities of negotiation in an easy comprehensible manner...There are also chapters on agreement that focus on the structuring and development of a pre-mediation agreement and another one on the role of the mediator at the onset of a prospective mediation."She categorically pointed out that the topic pertaining to the role and ethics of a mediator had piqued her interest. Justice Kohli appreciated that instead of indulging in philosophical deliberation on ethics, the author had dealt with the challenges faced by a mediator in real life- "One of the topics that caught my eyes was the role and ethics of a mediator, which is very important. It recognises the multitude of discussions and schools of thought on ethical obligations of a mediator rather than a philosophical discourse on ethics, the chapter seeks to educate the reader on a real time challenge faced by a mediator."Justice Kohli noticed that an article on online dispute had given credit to the pandemic for expediting the advancement of online dispute resolution (ODR). Acknowledging that ODR has transformed the realm of mediation, she reckoned that it would be instrumental in resolving disputes by both the traditional and ...

'Mediators Are Peacemakers' : Justice Hima Kohli At Judges Conclave On Mediation Education

Sohini Chowdhury

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