Browsing by Projects - Department "Department of Law and Business"

The landscape of the use and development of mediation in settlement of disputes in Hong Kong has been fast changing. As defined in the Mediation Ordinance (Cap. 620), mediation as a structured process where an impartial individual, without adjudicating a dispute, facilitated the parties to the settle their disputes. To achieve this, mediators in Hong Kong are trained to “facilitate” parties to negotiate instead of evaluating the merits of the disputes for them. While the facilitative model remains the mainstream practice in Hong Kong, there are different variations of practice. One major variant is “evaluative mediation” where the neutral adopts a more “active or interventionist role, making suggestions or putting forward views on the merits of the case …” (CEDR, 2018, Brooker 2007). The two practices, as western studies shown, are not mutually inclusive. Academic studies in mediation tend to confined to the significant impact of mediation in the legal process, for instance accreditation standards (Honeyman 1995), mediation principles, process and skills (Boulle and Nesic 2010), satisfaction or settlement rate (Quek, Chua, & Ngo 2018). Hong Kong is in the crossroad of considering including evaluative mediation as one of the practice modes, but the practice of evaluative mediation practices is under-researched. To provide sufficient research output in support of this policy decision is imperative for the development of mediation in a direction that aligns with its purported aims. This study is original in that it extends the scope of research beyond the legal realm, and adopted an interdisciplinary approach combining legal and psychological theory and methodologies. The aim of this study is to investigate the behavioural and physiological response on a participating party in mediation sessions when facilitative or evaluative narrative skills are used. The findings will provide evidence-based data on the differences in the use of evaluative and facilitative mediation narratives, which are factors to be considered in enhancing the use of evaluation in mediation in Hong Kong. Stage 1 of the study will involve the development of two standard sets of mediation narratives in its verbal form, one on facilitative model and the other on evaluative model. Stage 2 will be an experiment in investigating the behavioural and physiological responses of participants on both facilitative and evaluative mediation models. In addition, the attempt to link physiological and behavioural responses to mediation practice will support the efficacy of the effective strategies in mediation practice that is scientifically substantiated. The result of the study will be significant not only for training of mediators, but more importantly for the development in Hong Kong the choice of style of mediation on a sound theoretical ground. The study will also increase mediators’ awareness that adopting different mediation strategies may lead to different behavioural and physiological responses, that might have an impact on parties’ decision making on whether to settle a dispute.

Restorative Justice (RJ) has been used in many parts of the world as one of the ways to offer alternative form of justice to both the offender and the victim. RJ puts a focus on those who are affected by an unjust act, and how this harm could be repaired by the person who has committed the acts. This is proved to be an effective way to support the offending party, especially young persons, to reintegrate into the community. RJ has also been supported by research studies as one of the effective approaches to juvenile criminal behaviour. With the recent resurge on youth crime rate in Hong Kong, the notion of RJ should be re-visited since resorting to penal justice is not an option to restore the harm done to the community. The introduction of RJ through the public semester, best joined by those who are currently involved in resolving cases relevant to youngsters in Hong Kong, will effectively attract the public. The theory and practice of RJ involved dimensions of studies in a multi-disciplinary way, including law, psychology and neuroscience. One major RJ theory is on “Reintegrative Shaming”, which encompasses aspects on emotional changes and cognition that are studied in psychology and neuroscience. It is the aim of this project to arouse social awareness of the use of RJ as a powerful tool in the criminal justice process, embedded with multi-disciplinary knowledge transfer in law, psychology and neuroscience.