ABSTRACT

This chapter examines three crucial mediation matters – impartiality, party self-determination and fair outcomes – illustrating and examining them using popular culture examples. It discusses the process of looking at mediation through the lens of popular culture. The chapter utilizes the character Kate Reed on the first American primetime mediation drama, the off-the-air TV series Fairly Legal, as well as the protagonist in the eponymously titled French film Amelie as illustrative case studies. The concept of mediator impartiality is central to the mediation process. A mediator shall mediate only those matters in which she or he can remain impartial and even-handed. Impartiality is an aspirational goal for mediators, who know that their very presence in the room changes conflict dynamics and influences the disputants. Impartiality, self-determination and fair outcomes are all compelling and all important, and how each is prioritized in any given mediation session is up to the mediator.