The Nationwide Academy for Dispute Resolution

"Why should an organisation choose to adopt the services provided by the Nationwide Academy for Dispute Resolution in preference to the services of other ADR organisations ?"

We will presume that the reason you are considering this issue at all is because you have already considered another question "Why should our organisation choose to settle disputes by adopting ADR processes rather than by resorting to the traditional method of litigation ?" and have concluded that ADR is beneficial, hence the question "Who provides the most appropriate ADR services for our organisation ?"

Beyond Arbitration, ADR is relatively new. Globally, its availability is far from uniform. The USA has going on for 30 years of significant ADR provision, but the roots of Mediation in the US are over 80 years old. Australia has about 12 years of significant ADR provision. Canada has 3 years of significant ADR provision. In the UK, through the auspices of ACAS, ADR has been available in one form or another for over 50 years with The Centre for Dispute Resolution (CEDR) launching the first major wave of commercial provision in 1990. This was closely followed by the ADR Group under the auspices of the Law Society and by an experiment in the London County Court. ADR has now been firmly cemented in the consciousness of UK commerce for about 3 years. Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore have heard much about the concepts of ADR and their advantages but have little experience of ADR in practice. By contrast the principal forms of dispute resolution in the People's Republic of China are ADR based, with the courts representing the "alternative" to traditional non-judicial dispute settlement systems.

With this in mind where can one go to find an ADR provider ? How do the provisions of the various providers differ ? Which ADR provider should one chose ? Which system is the most appropriate for your organisation ? Given the depth of experience in the USA and the fact that there are in excess of 26,000 ADR providers in the USA this might seem a logical, if somewhat daunting place to start. The problem for organisations based outside the US, in turning to the US ADR market, is that by enlarge the US providers are very parochial. Much of the considerable ADR expertise in the US revolves around maximising the special circumstances of the diverse jurisdictions of the US and the peculiarities of US state and federal law and the implication of and vicissitudes of jury trial for the settlement of commercial disputes, coupled with the compulsory provision of ADR in many states. In some respects the limited global vision of US practitioners means that there is an inbuilt resistance towards the accommodation of alternative cultures which makes the US based providers somewhat unattractive on the global market.

The traditional ties between the Commonwealth and the UK inevitably mean that there is a tendency for Commonwealth organisations and for the legal practitioners, who have modelled their legal systems on the UK, to look to the UK for inspiration. The Centre for Dispute Resolution (CEDR) is the longest established ADR provider in the UK. The CEDR model and variants of it have been adopted by a number of other ADR providers in the UK and so the CEDR model might appear to provide a perfect exemplar of what would be the most suitable ADR model for Commonwealth Courtries and other countries with close trading ties with the UK. This leaflet will therefore analyse the differences between the CEDR model and the NADR model and set out the merits of and disadvantages of each.

Before doing so, let us consider what ADR embraces. Alternatives to judicial settlement of disputes include :-

• Arbitration and its many variants including Adjudication, Expert Determination and Ombudsmen;
• Conciliation or non binding settlement;
• Mediation and amalgams of the above such as Mediation/Arbitration, Mediation/Adjudication and Dispute Review Boards.

To date the principal established provider of all variants of ADR is the American Arbitration Association (AAA). The CIArb in the UK has restricted its provision until recently to Arbitration. In 1998 it adopted Adjudication and is currently assessing what role it will play in the provision of Mediation and its variants. ADR providers in the UK such as CEDR have concentrated on mediation provision. NADR personnel have had experience in all fields of ADR provision and NADR is in a position to offer a complete range of ADR services to the global community.