The bi-annual National Mediation conference is being held at the Gold Coast with pre-conference workshops beginning on Sunday 11 September.  The conference itself runs from Monday 12 September to Wednesday 13 September and there is also a Dispute Resolution Research Forum being held at Bond University on Thursday 14 September.  A number of members from the Australian Dispute Resolution Research Network will be presenting aspects of their research (a copy of the program can be found here):

Susan Armstrong – A session on “Family Dispute Resolution in multicultural and multifaith Australia – What does it mean for Australian Muslims?

Pauline Collins – A member of the organising Committee for the conference

Jon Crowe – A plenary session on “Two Models of Mediation Ethics”

Kathy Douglas – A session on “Disputes in vertical living: Facilitating conflict resolution”

Sue Douglas – A session on “Power in mediation”

Rachael Field – A session on “Family violence: Innovations for the next decade”

Danielle Hutchinson and Emma-May Litchfield – A session on “The future of dispute resolution: A global perspective”

Lola Akin Ojelabi – A session on “Mediator attitudes toward confidentiality and public interest/policy issues: Responses from Australian and US (Californian) mediators”

Olivia Rundle – A session on “Including trans, gender diverse, intersex and/or non-heterosexual people in mediation service delivery”

Bobette Wolski – A session on “The revised NMAS Practice Standards: Mind the gaps”

This list does not include some presentations that are being delivered on the Research Forum Day, but it goes without saying that the Netowrk is also well represented at the forum.  If you are a member of the Network and I have inadvertantly left a session of yours off this list, please let me know (james.duffy@qut.edu.au) and I will add your session to the list.

On Friday 4th September 2015, LEADR and IAMA, two of Australia’s largest dispute resolution service providers completed the final stage of their amalgamation.  LEADR and IAMA formally integrated on 1 January 2015.  Previously, they had worked as separate organisations, seeking to improve awareness and quality of ADR practices in Australia.  To an extent, they were also in competition with each other to attract membership fees, and to provide training programs to members of the public.  The final part of their amalgamation was to announce a new name and logo.  The new name is “Resolution Institute”.  The logo is pictured below.

Because organisations like the new Resolution Institute offer so many services and purport to do so many things, I’m always keeping my eye out for little statements that neatly sum up what they really do.  I haven’t been able to find a branded Resolution Institute constitution yet, but I suspect that it will contain a purpose/object section similar to the LEADR & IAMA constitution.

The Objects of the company are to:

1. promote the use of dispute resolution (DR) practised by its Members;
2. foster the use of DR to prevent, manage and resolve conflict and disputes;
3. contribute to the growth and development of DR through consultation with government, business, individuals and other organisations;
4. provide information about DR and about DR practitioners to the public;
5. develop and support high standards of practice in DR;
6. provide and encourage the provision of education, training, accreditation and research in DR; and
7. provide services to support the professional development and practices of DR practitioners.

With the people sitting behind this new organisation, there is every reason to think this merger will work.  One question (and perhaps a little controversial) I’d like to propose to blog readers is this:

Are there downsides to LEADR and IAMA merging?

2014 was a busy year for the ADR Research Network in terms of research output.  To mark January 2015, here is a quick snapshot of some of textbooks produced by the network last year.  We will follow up with a post about 2014 journal articles in the not too distant future.

David Spencer and Samantha Hardy, Dispute Resolution in Australia: Cases, Commentary and Materials (Thomson Reuters, 3rd ed 2014).  Find out more about this book here.

Michael King, Arie Frieberg, Becky Batagol and Ross Hyams, Non-Adversarial Justice (Federation Press, 2nd ed 2014).  Find out more about this book here.

Rachael Field, James Duffy and Anna Huggins, Lawyering and Positive Professional Identities (LexisNexis Butterworths, 2014).  Find out more about this book here.