CONFERENCE OF THE PROJECT: “REINFORCING THE SYSTEM OF COURT-ANNEXED MEDIATION”

A conference of the project “Reinforcing the system of court-annexed mediation” was organized by the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration and Norwegian Courts Administration.

The main goal of the project is to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the judicial system in the Republic of Croatia. The project involves cross-border cooperation, involving the comparison of the existing mediation system with those in other European countries – Norway, Portugal, the Netherlands, Ireland. For this purpose, the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration organized study visits to the mentioned jurisdictions. The participants of the study visits were dispute resolution experts who exchanged experiences with European experts on the implementation of advanced dispute resolution models in their jurisdictions.

The total value of the project is estimated at 1.5 million euros, and 85% was financed by a Norwegian grant.

As we have reported previously – BDV was engaged by the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration to prepare a comprehensive in-depth written study on the mediation system in Croatia. The study analyses the potential shortcomings of the current Croatian legal framework for mediation, as well as lays down an extensive list of recommendations on how to both enhance and improve this framework. In drafting this study, BDV team paid particular attention to the undisputable fact that different types of disputes require different types of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms – same solutions cannot be equally applied in the case of commercial and consumer disputes in Croatia. This approach resulted in a creation of a comprehensive study that may serve as a basis for further legislative reforms on alternative dispute resolution in nearly any major area of Croatian local law.

The conference presented the monitoring of the project’s implementation and all its related activities. Our representatives, Marko Karlo Bohaček, Monika Rakitničan and Tomislav Sadrić, shared their own experiences and views of the held study visits.

We thank our colleagues from the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration for their cooperation and all the effort put into the implementation of the project. BDV will continue closely observing the development of alternative dispute resolution structures in Croatia and will strive to contribute within our field of expertise.