Charlie Irvine

Have you ever wondered who mediators are helping? The parties, obviously! Well, not so obvious to our critics. In this blog I consider worries about mediation's approach to manifest injustice…

Morton Deutsch, the great social psychologist of common sense, explained the difference between competition and cooperation thus: "if you’re positively linked with another, then you sink or swim…

Sometimes we have to ask probing questions. Does mediation do any good? Does it make the world a better place? Is there more or less peace in our societies because of our work? This sort of research…

A few months ago I painted a not-terribly-flattering picture of Scottish justice as experienced by small claimants - (Oiling the Wheels of the Justice System). Seen through the eyes of a mediator …

  Despite some scepticism about the value of "roleplay" most mediation training involves asking people to run a pretend mediation session. I've tried various euphemisms to ease trainees' anxiety - …

  [A talk given at the recent "100 cases" event in Glasgow to celebrate two years of small claims mediation provided by Strathclyde Mediation Clinic. Judges in Scotland are known as "sheriffs".] I…

"You cannot direct a living system; you can only disturb it"1 When mediators join a conflict, they enter a living system. Realise it or not, that system is instantly changed by their arrival. …

“Patients don’t expect doctors to be perfect. They do expect them to strive for perfection by opening up their work to scrutiny” Atul Gawande, Desert Island Discs, BBC Radio 4, 6/12/15. A bit of a…

In 2006 Frank Sander produced his 'Mediation Receptivity Index'(22 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, 599-618). The MRI would be a way of discerning the extent of 'mainstreaming' or …