Alternative Dispute Resolution

This paper is performed mainly to introduce Dispute Board (DB) as the one of the many Alternative Dispute Resolutions (ADRs) to be applied into the Malaysian construction industry to reduce and minimize the amount of disputes. This research is carried out by interviewing nine respondents which consist of registered Quantity Surveyors. Litigation and arbitration has been widely applied in Malaysia for dispute settlement. Both methods, however, do become more tedious and arduous processes to go through to resolve disputes. Mediation, on the other hand, has been a new alternative for dispute settlement in the Malaysian construction industry. Nevertheless, arbitration and mediation have not yet made a big impact in the numbers of disputes arising in the Malaysian construction industry. Therefore, this paper unveils the viability of implementing Dispute Board as a better and more efficient method of ADR that is determined in the outset of the project. Dispute Board is able to reduce the amount of disputes arising in the Malaysian construction industry.

""This anthropological study describes a specific form of mediation, as it is practiced in Ethiopia (Northeast Africa) by members of the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups. It introduces elders as male household-heads in their advanced ages, who settle conflicts and arrange marriages for the members of the junior generations. There are not only 'easy' cases dealt with, which one might assume to be too 'unimportant' for state courts or other juridical institutions but also aggravated cases that may affect the wider group or that have inter-ethnic dimensions. The study uses specific case studies of marriage, bride abduction, physical injury and homicide for illustration. Within the book, reference is made to speech-act-theory and the 'new ethnographic' approach related to it. Both rhetoric strategies and non-verbal means of communication are discussed, such as postures, gestures, spatial arrangements, numerical symbolisms, or the deliberate use of certain kinds of dress and of material objects. Special attention is paid to the use of ritual in mediation procedures. The book brings to light significant regularities that are inherent to the different types of elders' proceedings. Peculiar elements and phases can be distinguished that re-occur in all types of processes analysed in the study. This cannot exclusively be explained by reference to 'process', as a general idea of people negotiating law. It moreover hints to the existence of a formal 'procedure', which follows its own rules. Accordingly, a change of perspective 'from process to procedure' is suggested in the book's programmatic title.

http://www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/title_2776.ahtml

Book Order US:
http://www.amazon.com/From-Process-Procedure-Aethiopistische-Forschungen/dp/3447066113/

Book Order Germany:
http://www.amazon.de/Process-Procedure-Mediation-Formality-Ethiopia/dp/3447066113/
http://www.buchhandel.de/detailansicht.aspx?isbn=9783447066112""

This article is a case study of mediation in a basic level court in an underdeveloped southwest ethnic minority county. It details the whole process of court mediation when solving disputes through “thick description”. It argues that court mediation is feasible there because both the judge and the disputant are embedded in the local social structure and that court mediation is good practice for solving the dispute. Court mediation can maximise the benefits for all involved individuals and also provide an acceptable dispute resolution, although it may differ from the ideal model which is more suitable for developed urban areas of China.

The article first describes characteristics of major infrastructure projects. Second, it documents a much neglected topic in economics: that ex ante estimates of costs and benefits are often very different from actual ex post costs and benefits. For large infrastructure projects the consequences are cost overruns, benefit shortfalls, and the systematic underestimation of risks. Third, implications for cost–benefit analysis are described, including that such analysis is not to be trusted for major infrastructure projects. Fourth, the article uncovers the causes of this state of affairs in terms of perverse incentives that encourage promoters to underestimate costs and overestimate benefits in the business cases for their projects. But the projects that are made to look best on paper are the projects that amass the highest cost overruns and benefit shortfalls in reality. The article depicts this situation as ‘survival of the unfittest’. Fifth, the article sets out to explain how the problem may be solved, with a view to arriving at more efficient and more democratic projects, and avoiding the scandals that often accompany major infrastructure investments. Finally, the article identifies current trends in major infrastructure development. It is argued that a rapid increase in stimulus spending, combined with more investments in emerging economies, combined with more spending on information technology is catapulting infrastructure investment from the frying pan into the fire.

The current study uses a survey instrument to examine parenting coordination through the lens of Bronfenbrenner's Person, Process, Context, Time (PPCT) model. The survey focused on contextual factors such as statutes, local rules, interpersonal characteristics, dynamics of the clients, and background characteristics of parenting coordinators. Responses from a sample of PCs were obtained using list serves and a snowball sampling procedure. Results included the extent to which the parenting coordination process occurs through email and other technology rather than in-person sessions. Mental health disorders and inability to pay were primary barriers to the PC process.

Dealing with conflict is not just a fact of life but it is the crux of my profession. When people have problems that seem too great to deal with - they call me to help fix the problem. So, here are five things I have learned over the years. Maybe you might be able to use them in your line of work.

Nous allons ici nous attacher à la gestion de la proximité dans la résolution des conflits pénaux. Pour ce faire, nous avons choisi de nous pencher sur la procédure de médiation pénale, laquelle nous apparaît à la fois comme une pratique novatrice dans les matières répressives et comme la mise en action d’un discours sur la proximité qui opère une rupture claire avec les époques précédentes brièvement évoquées ci-dessus. Nous interrogerons donc à la fois les pratiques de médiation pénale et les discours qui les sous-tendent, à la recherche de concordances ou de discordances entre eux. Nous cheminerons à la lueur d’une question portant sur la configuration de la proximité propre à la médiation : assistons-nous à un rapprochement entre le justiciable et l’État, voire, entre parties à un litige et, si c’est le cas, s’agit-il pour un citoyen inféodé de se réfugier sous l’aile protectrice d’un État d’essence quasi-divine ou, au contraire, de « reprendre la main », de se rapprocher pour être au cœur des processus, là où se décide son sort.