According to Philip Bartle QC in the Times, the actions of the police there should lead to important changes in policing future demonstrations. Although some demonstrators were violent, most were peaceful. Ian Tomlinson, who had nothing to do with the demonstration, died and there has been grave concern at the police treatment of many demonstrators.
Last month Parliament’s Human Rights Committee recommended that in future independent negotiators should facilitate dialogue between police and protesters to overcome the distrust and tensions between them and so act in a similar role to Acas in industrial disputes. The Independent Police Complaints Commission and HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and similar bodies could assist in identifying and assisting the negotiators and draw on the good practice in this area in Northern Ireland.
What Philip Bartle introduces is the concerpt of mediation. As he points out mediation is voluntary and is used to resolve disputes in litigation, the workplace, the community and international conflicts.
The mediator is neutral. He or she chairs discussions between the parties and meets them privately. The parties propose ways of resolving the dispute and the mediator facilitates the discussions. Mediation is particularly useful where there is, or is thought to be, an imbalance of power between the parties.
Yet there is more than one way to skin a cat and this is where professionals and lawyers need to explore alternative options for resolving disputes.
Sometimes there is a need to impose a decision.
For example,an alternative to mediation is imposing a decision as happens in Northern Ireland. The Parades Commission is a non-statutory body set up in 1997 by Parliament to seek to avoid the violence of some annual parades.
It has been an unqualified success. Its seven commissioners and chairman represent a cross-section of the Northern Irish community. The commission using its authorised officers encourages the parties to agree routes and conditions but, if there is no agreement, it can decide the routes for the parades and conditions for the conduct of the parades.
In 2007-08, it received notification of 3,849 parades and of 250 that required detailed consideration, only 147 needed the imposition of conditions on a proposed route. Independent monitors as well as the authorised officers attend each contentious parade and report back to the commission so it knows what actually takes place after its decision.
This illustrates rwo different ways to resolve a dispute. You can go for mediation which is voluntarty and theoretically the parties can walk away at any point.
Effectively this latter option is a form of arbitration. Arbitration is totally underutilised by many lawyers and human resoiuce profesionals due to cost concerns or some ignorance or the difficulties in getting the other side to agree to it.