Advantages Of Alternative Dispute Resolution

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Disputes which infiltrate the society are unavoidable in all aspects of life; this can range from family disagreements to corporate conflicts. One very cost effective yet beneficial method of adjudication with the purpose of resolving disputes in South Africa is Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). These ADR methods are namely mediation; negotiation, conciliation and arbitration. It is argued that flexibility is the guarantee of ADR. These ADR methods have expanded access to justice for social crowds that are not sufficiently or reasonably served by the legal framework. While the popularity of mediation is on the rise at its base there is an increase of legal costs, not only is it a refined procedure that permits the disputing parties to…show more content…
The English influence on the South African Lawsupported the adversarial character and the adjudicative principles of the Roman Dutch Law. It ensured that the western norms and values of resolving disputes became indelible and alternative dispute resolution formed part of the English Law but it was to a large extent limited to arbitration. After independence from the English rule in 1961, the use of the courts to enforce apartheid legislation further entrenched the culture of resolving disputes through the courts. Save for arbitration in commercial matters, very little attention was given to other alternative dispute resolution methods and the use of mediation was still mostly limited to the traditional African communities. The change for mediation came with the establishment of the Independent Mediation Service off South Africa in 1984, which heralded the turning of the tide in favour of mediation. This body was established by a group of trade unionist, employers, academics and lawyers and it wanted to provide a credible dispute resolution institution that could offer services directed at the mediation and arbitration of employment…show more content…
This is not an example of mediation per se but the members of the commission played a mediatory role to bridge the injustices of the past and the new democratic constitutional state. The most widespread application of mediation in South Africa has been in the area of employment and labour disputes and when The Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 was enacted it was one of the first pieces of legislation enacted post-apartheid. This act gave rise to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), which made mediation the point of departure in employment disputes. Then along came the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 which regulates the credit industry in South Africa and gave mediation a place where a debt counselor can mediate on the debtor’s behalf with the creditors for his/her debt to be restructured. We see mediation in our criminal sphere of the law too in the adoption of S61 and S62 of the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008, which came into operation during April 2010, provides respectively for a family group conference to be mediated by a probation officer or a diversion service provider and can only take place with the consent of the victim and the child concern to plan or developed on how the child will redress the effects of the

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