Mediation process: increasing language awareness and developing communication skills

Abstract

European countries have known mediation for a long time. Notwithstanding that, various approaches and rules of mediation developed in different places all over Europe and Member States still do not have regulated mediation at all (Espluques et al. 2012). The European Union has tackled this problem with the aim to change mediation into a flexible and useful tool for the parties to solve their disputes in civil and commercial matters. The objective of this paper is to provide first a general overview of mediation process on the basis of the Directive 2008/52/EC of the European Parliament and the Council on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters. Then, attention will be focused on the language skills and linguistic strategies for practitioners who deal with mediation process, making them aware of the peculiarities of mediation discourse and able to adapt the process to meet the particular circumstances in a knowledgeable way.