LAW5604 Clinical Law-I: Alternative Dispute Resolution — Unit 1: Practical Work

Unit 1: Practical Work

1.1 The ADR Skills (the Course’s Foundation)

The ADR family: the negotiation (the parties’ direct dealing); the conciliation-and-meditation (the third party’s facilitation); the arbitration (the third party’s decision) — the adjudication’s alternatives. Nepal’s legal frame (the verified map): the Arbitration Act 2055 (the arbitration’s framework); the Mediation Act 2068 (2011) (the mediation’s framework — the Mediation Council’s registration-and-standards); the Civil Procedure Code 2074 (ss. 193-195) (the mandatory mediation attempts in the property-and-family matters — the court-annexed stream); the Local Government Operation Act 2074 (the Judicial Committees’ community mediation); the Labour Act 2074’s conciliation faces. The three streams (the Mediation Council’s design): the court-annexed (all three court levels), the community (the local committees), the private (the parties’ choice).
The skills’ course (the syllabus’s own list):

1.1.1 Communication Skill

The ADR’s instrument: the clarity (the message’s craft); the assertiveness-without-aggression; the non-verbal’s discipline (the tone, the posture, the eye); the cultural sensitivity (the parties’ contexts).

1.1.2 Listening Skills

The active listening: the full attention; the paraphrase-and-check (“what I hear you saying is…”); the emotion’s acknowledgment; the positions-to-interests’ hearing (the needs behind the demand — the Fisher-Ury lesson: listen for the interests behind the positions).

1.1.3 Negotiation Skills

The principled negotiation (Getting to Yes’s four: the people-from-the-problem separation; the interests-not-positions; the options-for-mutual-gain; the objective criteria) against the positional bargaining (the concession’s dance); the BATNA’s discipline (the best alternative’s knowledge — the power’s real source); the zone-of-possible-agreement (ZOPA) concept.

1.1.4 Issue Identification

The dispute’s anatomy: the facts’ sorting; the interests’ mapping (the parties’ underlying needs); the issues’ listing (the negotiable-and-non-negotiable); the priorities’ ranking — the agenda’s construction.

1.1.5 Moderated/Unmoderated Caucus

The caucus: the private session (the mediator’s separate meeting with each party — the confidential sounding; the reality-testing; the offer’s shuttle) — the moderated (the structured) and the unmoderated (the free) designs; the caucus’s craft (the confidentiality’s management; the rejoining’s report discipline).

1.1.6 Options Generation etc.

The creative phase: the brainstorming (the judgment deferred); the options’ expansion before the evaluation (the pie’s enlargement — the integrative faces); the objective-criteria testing; the package’s assembly (the trades across the issues).

1.2 The Mock Sessions (the Course’s Method)

The fictional case’s journey: the case’s briefing (the facts-and-roles distributed); the preparation (the role’s interests mapped; the strategy-and-BATNA); the negotiation round (the parties’ direct dealing — the skills’ first test); the mediation round (the student-mediator’s facilitation — the opening statement, the story-telling, the issues’ framing, the caucus, the options); the arbitration round (the student-arbitrator’s hearing — the pleadings, the evidence, the award’s drafting); the debrief (the demonstration’s analysis — the skills’ review, the technique’s lessons).
The mediator’s stages (the mock’s map): the introduction-and-rules; the parties’ stories; the agenda; the exploration; the caucus; the negotiation; the agreement (the settlement’s writing — the enforceable document).

1.3 Practical Visit to the Arbitration Centers and Mediation Centers

The field faces (the course’s requirement): the Nepal Council of Arbitration (NEPCA) — the domestic arbitration’s administration (the arbitrators’ roster, the rules); the Nepal International Arbitration Center (NIAC) — the international-and-domestic arbitration’s modern institution; the court-annexed mediation centers (the District Court’s mediation wings — the CPC 2074’s machinery in action; the empanelled mediators’ practice); the Mediation Council (the registration-and-oversight body); the community faces (the Judicial Committee’s local mediation). The visit’s discipline: the observation protocol; the practitioners’ interaction; the report’s writing (the clinical course’s own craft).

Model Questions

1. Explain the ADR skills the course develops. (10)
2. Describe the mock negotiation-mediation-arbitration cycle. (10)
3. What is a caucus? Explain its use. (10)
4. Describe Nepal’s arbitration-and-mediation institutions. (10)

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📚 Get the complete notes: Download the full Clinical Law-I: Alternative Dispute Resolution PDF (all units) — Law Info Nepal Original Notes Series.