A Research On The Court Mediation System

The court mediation system is a system which has the Chinese characteristics in the civil litigation, a long history and a broad social base. As a way of quelling the disputes and in the current context of the harmonious society, its importance is particularly prominent. Especially in recent years, the system of court launched some projects like "A Mediation Year "," A Great Mediation "," Year of Reinforcement in Mediation" to hence the effectiveness of mediation and thus resolve a number of contradictions and disputes, thus, the mediation rate has increased annually.To re-examine the system of litigation and mediation, to re-construct a system of mediation in the court which adapts to Chinese national situations and has a powerful operationality and a great efficiency in practice becomes a vital issue in the current reformation in the judicial system. Based on the review of the relevant theories and its traditional history, this study focuses on the deficiencies and the mediation system of court mediation. Finally, the author of this study will draw on the successful experiences of the People’s Court of Pudong New Area in Shanghai in resolving the disputes with a multi-mechanism and discusses the motivations in exploration the new practical mediation methods. Finally, the author will put forward some innovative suggestions in improving the system of mediation in China.This study is divided into the following four parts:The first part is an overview of the court mediation system. Firstly, the author will elaborate the concept of mediation by the court and analyze the nature of the court mediation. Then the author will examine the evolution of the system of mediation in the course of different historical periods which shows us that the court mediation can be developed into a system of civil litigation with its profound cultural background and unique historical conditions.The second part firstly describes the current legislative norms of the court mediation system, followed by analyzing the problems in the judicial practice of the court mediation system, including the tendency of mandatory mediation blurring the voluntary mediation, the efficiency problems in the court mediation and it is a general fact that a case could not be resolved for a long time. The multi-mechanism in resolving the disputes lacks of a unified leadership, a unified and standardized regular and an effective communication. The staff in the collegial bench and all the mediation forces in the society failed to give full play in mediation. The application of the law in the court mediation is not in place, the mediation work has no law to follow and the pretrial mediation organization is not perfect.The third part firstly introduces the successful and practical experiences in People’s Court of Pudong New Area in Shanghai in the court mediation, followed by analysis of the motivation to explore the mediation methods in the court mediation:the global trend of judicial reform and the building of a harmonious society; the augmentation of the number of litigation and the requirements of re-examing the advantages of mediation; the complaint letters and visits becomes increasingly a serious problem.The fourth part introduces the objective requirements to hence the work of mediation in the court, some innovative suggestions pointing to the existing problems in the judicial practice in order to realize the value and status of court mediation in civil litigation and to give fully play of its unique features in building a harmonious society.