International Arbitration and Mediation: Friends or Foes?

International arbitration and mediation have been serving and complementing each for over a decade. Although both aim to resolve disputes between parties in conflict, fundamental differences in terms of process and application still remain, with debates around each is supportive or undermining of the other. Both methods allow parties from different countries to avoid litigation in national courts. The answer to the questions at hand: friends or foes in terms of what? Friends or foes for whom? Towards the other process, or for the parties in dispute, or for the law firms? I suggest that rather than positing the two methods as either similar or antagonistic, we should instead think of them as ‘colleagues’ who produce an effective synergy in the overall process of dispute resolution.