Responsibilities of the Commercial Mediator: a Comparative Analysis

Mediators being human as other professionals do make mistakes. However, effective protection of the aggrieved party - the mediator's former client, is hardly possible without defining certain criteria for assessing the mediator's behaviour, as part of regulation. Therefore, recognition of the primary mediator?s responsibilities as a distinct category could be of great value. This research is focused on the regulation of the mediator?s standards of conduct defined in relation to the duties and responsibilities of the mediator to the parties, to the process, to non-parties or the general public, and to other professionals. An understanding of the scope of the mediator?s responsibilities and their implications is gained from a review of the relevant provisions of laws, various institutional rules and ethical codes on mediation as well as from the commentaries of leading scholars and practitioners.