Integrating Mediation into Arbitration: Why It Works in China?

Summary

This article explains why combining mediation with arbitration (med-arb or arb-med) works well in China, even though practitioners elsewhere disagree about whether arbitrators should help parties settle. The authors trace this acceptance to China's history, culture and politics, in which conciliatory settlement has long been preferred to confrontational adjudication, and to a legal framework that actively encourages mediation within arbitral proceedings. Noting that similar hybrid practices are common elsewhere in Asia, the article considers what the Chinese experience suggests for international dispute resolution, including how mediation and arbitration might be combined in cross-border commercial disputes.