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ABSTRACTEnvironmental protection is a subject which arouses deep feelings and inherently involves the reconciliation or balancing of competing principles and priorities. The disputes which it engenders can be complex, bitter and protracted, and they are the types of issue which could significantly benefit from the application of mediation techniques. In the UK, little progress seems to have been made in applying such techniques to the full range of environmental problems, in contrast to other areas.Mediation is growing in popularity and use in the context of family disputes, problems between neighbours, and commercial problems. With some exceptions, however, it has not been widely applied to environmental disputes, which appears to be an area where the full potential of mediation remains to be realized.

Recent developments in Ukraine / Nadiya R. Kobetska and Svitlana M. Romanko -- Environmental mediation deficiencies in China and potential remedies / Haifeng Deng -- A legal status for mediation in general administrative law in the Netherlands / Kars J. de Graaf and Hanna D. Tolsma -- Is it time for a global legal framework in Belgium / Geert Van Hoorick, Lise Vandenhende and Brecht Warnez -- A new code of civil procedure in Canada and needs for further developments in environment / Catherine Choquette and Véronique Fraser -- A territorial dialogue in France / Philippe Barret and Pierre-Yves Guihéneuf -- Negotiated rulemaking for the brownfields law in the United States of America / Susan Podziba and Patricia Overmeyer -- The co-construction of projects with environmental externalities / Antonia Bousbaine and Christopher Bryant -- Mediating potential environmental conflict with a social learning model : six case studies from the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil / Anne Browning-Aiken, José Antonio Silvestre Fernandes Neto and Daniel José Da Silva -- The environmental complaint letters and visits system in China / Shijun Zhang

Prospects for its application in the international polity, in the context of both localized transboundary issues and global environmental problems.

Environmental mediation is a new & innovative attempt to overcome the policy stalemates that frequently hinder effective environmental policy making. It brings together environmentalists, business groups, government officials, & a neutral mediator in an attempt to negotiate a binding settlement to a specific controversy. This approach is described & its advantages over more traditional dispute resolution processes are discussed. Its ability to produce acceptable agreements in such a difficult policy area is explained. An account of a successful mediation project concerning Portage Island, Wash, is presented. Modified HA.

AbstractThis article focuses on the alternative dispute resolution process of mediation, especially as applied to environmental disputes. Many of the critical dilemmas facing environmental mediators hinge on the tension between party self‐determination and informed decision making, and mediator neutrality. In the interest of advancing greater understanding and discussion of the practice of environmental mediation, this article presents a brief background to environmental mediation, its distinguishing characteristics, and some of the most commonly recurring dilemmas, many with ethical implications.

AbstractLittle empirically based research has been carried out with the aim of evaluating mediation procedures in the area of environmental policy. Generally, such procedures are evaluated retrospectively and on the basis of general atteria. The Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) conducted a research project into mediation procedures in the field of environmental protection, the central object of study being the mediation procedure undertaken to resolve a dispute over the waste management program of Neuss County in Germany This paper presents some results of the accompanying social scientific research, with the aim of evaluating the success of the mediation. It begin by describing the problems underlying the mediation procedure in NeuSS the procedure itself, and the results achieved. Then follows an evaluation of this procedure, based on eighteen key procedural and results‐related criteria for evaluating the success of the mediation. The analysis shows that evalual ing mediation procedures is a highly complex affair, and that this is reflected in the evaluations made by the participants themselves.