Feedback Sought on Proposed International Commercial Conciliation Amendment to Uniform Mediation Act Adopted by ABA Last Year

Ann L. MacNaughton

Last year, the American Bar Association House of Delegates approved a “Uniform Mediation Act” in the form already then approved by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL).

ABA adoption of the UMA was controversial because of opposition by mediators in some states with strong mediation statutes, such as California, Texas, Florida and Pennsylvania, who expressed concern about the possibility of erosion of strong mediation confidentiality standards if ABA were to approve the less stringent UMA standard in a “uniform” act. See, e.g., Brian D. Shannon, Confidentiality of Mediations in Texas: Ruminations on Some Thorny Problems, on-line at http://www.texasadr.org/umaconfid.pdf.

Following its adoption by ABA, the UMA has been introduced as proposed legislation in five states. According to NCCUSL Web site (www.nccusl.org), it is in interim study in Nebraska, in the Senate Rules Committee in New York, in the House Judiciary Committee in South Carolina, and died in Oklahoma and Vermont. See http://www.nccusl.org/nccusl/ ActSearchResults.aspx.

Now it is proposed to amend the Model UMA to add an article about international commercial conciliation (online at http://www.law.upenn.edu/bll/ulc/mediaticca/dec2002draft.htm). More information about the proposed amendment is in an article prepared in March 2002 by Nancy Oretskin and Luis Miguel Diaz, co-directors of the U.S.-Mexico Conflict Resolution Center at Las Cruces, New Mexico, online at http://www.mediate.com/articles/daiz2.cfm#4.

Even if your environmental law (or mediation) practice is strictly limited to states such as California, Florida, Pennsylvania or Texas where attorney-mediators were active in opposing adoption of the UMA, and where its introduction any time soon is considered unlikely, please consider the potential for the UMA to touch your practice in this incr easingly new multijurisdictional practice world. Please take a look at the proposal (at www.nccuscl.org) and let us know what you think!

Ann L. MacNaughton is a vice-chair of the Section’s Coordinating Group on ADR. She is general counsel of Sustainable Resolutions Inc., and is the co-editor of the new book Environmental Dispute Resolution: An Anthology of Practical Solutions.