| Specifying the litigation intermediation as the basic principle and a procedure in the civil mediation is one of the important traits in civil procedure in China. This court system does not belong to the alternative dispute resolution in the strict sense, but it plays the same social role. Under the background of the trend of researching and using ADR, the traditional background, theoretical basis, realistic construction and development of the civil mediation have been universally noticed by researchers in China. Some of them think it should be denied and substituted according to its inherent shortcomings and realistic inefficiencies and some of them think it should be reformed and enhanced to its advantages. During the present time of building harmonious and lawful society, civil mediation system relies on tradition and culture and is meaningful in society as it is at the advantage of decreasing the cost of solving the problems and recovering economy, easing the emotional contradiction between clients, promoting the two sides to form and implement contact, strengthening "autonomy of will" and so on. The present condition indicates that the related governmental departments advocate that civil mediation is the best way to build a harmonious society and the judiciary staff try to select regulation plans according to different situations. So, due to the imperfect civil mediation system guided by the present judges, such situation will appear that some rights of the clients and some justice in reality are sacrificed for stability and efficiency. This requires us to seek for the solution to the problem while identifying the advantages.Starting with the mediation is one of the angles. As the mediation basis, customary law owns many advantages, such as promoting the implementation of the mediation. Through the analysis of customary law applied in the four cases, we can see that customary law exists in reality and can play its role in the field of national laws. Customary law is specified by acquaintance who live together for a long period and people constantly develop its principles. Because customary law and civil mediation share the same backgrounds and values, customary law can play a role of balance according to its advantages, promoting the implementation of the mediation cases and arriving at a harmonious society. Under the backgrounds of the dual society in China, customary law is based on the traditional law society, forms and develops in a society of acquaintances and is featured with nature, stability, logic, easy acquisition and specialty. Family and acquaintance disputes take the major ratios in the civil mediation and the solutions to the problems will affect the social relation and orders for a long period. So in the process of court mediation, properly finding and using the customary law not only helps seek for the best ways to the solve the problem, but also benefits the system of easing the emotional contradiction between clients. Due to the dual features of all things, it is necessary to have different conditions in the application of the customary law. To conclude, customary law can develop its advantages in the most comfortable environments and thus play its active role. |