On The Improvement And Development Of China's Mediation System

Mediation in litigation is one of the important systems in our nation's civil procedure and exerts immense effects on the mediation of civil disputes and the enhancement of social harmony as an important resolution of disputes with long history. It in essence fully respects the clients'will autonomy in the law, constitutes the results of their free disposal of their rights and mutual negotiation, embodying the exercises of their civil substantial rights in the procedure, and is a way to finish the cases by the court. However, with the development of our nation's reforming and opening up and the socialist market economy construction, there in practice apparently prop up some defects in the existing mediation system inconsistent with the factual reality, mainly of long time period of its application, wide application range and the mode of blending mediation and judging in the same procedure, rarely providing a fair justice. Facing on the factual changes and in order to carry on smoothly our nation's democratic and legal construction, reforms in the basic principles, mediation institutions and other aspects of the mediation system shall be carried forward to achieve consummation of the dispute settlement mechanism. The author proposes to adopt the following measures: The first is to re-establish the principles to be followed in our nation's mediation system,to reserve the willingness and legality principle by discarding the clear thing and responsibility principle, adhere to the un-openness and confidentiality principle and carry through the will autonomy principle for a flexible use of the mediation methods. The second is to perfect and establish related peripheral systems, differentiate lawsuits, perfect the people's mediation system and fully exert its influence to alleviate the burden of the court. The last is to reform the interior institutions in the court and establish mediation discussion courts to form a professional and elite case settlement way of mediation and to improve the mediation level and bring it into a standardized obit of operation, preventing some of the case handlers or clients using mediation to harm other's lawful rights and interests.