Abstrakt

Introduction Mediation is a form of alternative dispute resolution, which, with its wide range of applications in settling controversies of varying geneses and natures, has also become a permanent feature of civil proceedings’ regulation in European jurisdictions. The desire, on the one hand, to relieve the overstretched courts of case load and to improve the resolution of pending cases, and on the other – to facilitate the amicable finding of maximally satisfactory solutions to conflicts, naturally leads to the use of mediation. As a result, its role is growing, which is officially sanctioned in Directive 2008/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 May 2008 on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters1, accompanied by a European Code of Conduct for Mediators2. Importantly, the European legal framework for mediation regulation does not preclude Member States from shaping mediation (and other settlement-seeking forms) as mandatory pre-trial procedures3, with such settlements, however, established as not binding on the parties4. The Regulation has given to numerous European legal 25systems an impetus to broaden the range of legal instruments enabling pre-judicial and extrajudicial settlement of disputes5. This text aims to present, in a comparative perspective, how mediation is incorporated in certain European legal systems of both the continental (Germany and Austria) and common law traditions (England and Wales). This will make possible presenting the Polish approach toward mediation, in particular its planned changes, in the context of European experiences, and to reflect on the future of mediation in the Polish civil procedure, in particular on whether its current (and upcoming) regulation will allow it grow in importance.Mediation in Poland – its regulation and the coming reforms In the Polish civil process, mediation is regulated in a fragmented way; there is no separate statute regulating this issue comprehensively. With respect to that, Poland follows such European countries as the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and the Netherlands6; the regulatory approach is different in Germany and Austria, as discussed below.  As a result, mediation in Polish law is regulated primarily in the first provisions of Section II of the Civil Procedure Code7 – the one that regulates the proceedings at first instance. This, seemingly, demonstrates...