INKOVEMA Podcast „Well through time“

#53 – Mediation chamberisation

To which problem is the idea of a mediation chamber a solution – and how else can it be solved?

In conversation with Prof Dr Reinhard Greger

Well through time. The podcast about mediation, conflict coaching and organisational consulting.

Reinhard Greger, Former judge at the Federal Court of Justice and professor at the University of Nuremberg-Erlangen takes a critical stance on the German Foundation for Mediation's proposal to standardise the mediation profession. Although Prof Greger shares the diagnosis of the problem, it leads him to other solutions, which are explained in the podcast with Dr Sascha Weigel.

Contents:

On 25 March 2021, the German Mediation Foundation officially presented the idea of establishing a Federal Chamber of Mediators to the Federal Ministry of Justice and mediation stakeholders as an important contribution to the professionalisation of mediation. Chamber membership creates trust and significantly promotes awareness and acceptance of mediation among consumers.

As clear as the tasks of a chamber in the German chamber system are, namely the safeguarding of high-quality professional practice and the consistent external presentation of the professionals, it is insufficiently justifying for the chamberisation and its consequence of compulsory membership that the external presentation would succeed first with the help of a chamber.

Kammer idea and its challenges

  • To which problem is chamberisation a solution?
  • Basic idea of the chamber system
    • Quality assurance of professional practice
    • Standardised external presentation
  • Who would be affected and would ultimately become a member? (Problem, who is actually a mediator and what activities would be covered whose practice would lead to having to become a member of the chamber?)
  • Constitutional requirements

further solutions for the diagnosed problem to fewer mediations

  • Referral obligations for judges at the courts (bottleneck: Cultural change)
  • Duty to advise for lawyers (bottleneck: Profitability issues)
  • Requirements for social and other counselling centres (bottleneck: Competition issues)
  • Experience from the BIGFAM project in Berlin (bottleneck: Timeliness)

Notes