ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book looks to TV and movies as unique places to fill in the gaps and to gain a fuller understanding of mediation. It focuses on important matters in mediation: impartiality, self-determination and fair outcomes; feelings and expert intuition; conflicts of interest and repeat business; deception and caucusing; and mediator identity. Mediation is connected to negotiation, but is of course different because the parties are not reaching their agreement on their own as negotiators; they have the third-party mediator’s help. Given all the benefits of mediation it is not surprising that it is used across North America, Europe and China for an ever-widening array of disputes. Writers have described mediation applications in many contexts, such as business, commercial and workplace, public law, environmental, and criminal and restorative justice contexts.
