5.2 Mediation and Its Procedures

The concept: the neutral's facilitation — the mediator assists the parties to their own settlement (no decision imposed: the mediator's art = the interests' architecture, not the rights' adjudication); the settlement = the parties' contract (the mediation-settlement's decree-effect where the statute provides); The Nepali frame: the Mediation Act 2068 (2011) — the mediation's statutory institutionalization: the mediators' training-and-licensing; the settlement's registration-and- enforceability; the court-annexed mediation (the Civil Procedure Code's mediation-first stage — Unit 2.2's milaap mandate, Unit 4.2's milapatra practice); the community-and-local mediation centres (the ward-level practice; the NGO-era mediation movements — the peace- building lineage); The procedure (the Act's-and-practice's map): (i) the reference (the parties' agreement or the court's referral); (ii) the mediator's appointment (the roster; the impartiality); (iii) the sessions (the joint-and-caucus technique; the confidentiality's rule — the without-prejudice discipline); (iv) the settlement's writing-and-signing; (v) the registration (the court's-or- centre's registration = the enforceable settlement); The mediation's principles: the voluntariness (no imposed settlement); the confidentiality; the neutrality; the party-control; the best-interests' sensitivity (the family- and-child disputes' special care); The mediation-vs-arbitration table (the exam's classic comparison): Point Mediation Arbitration Third party's role facilitator adjudicator Outcome the parties' own agreement the arbitrator's binding award Finality the settlement's contractual force (registered = decree-like) the award's narrow challenge grounds Consent settlement always consensual the award imposed despite dissent Formality the flexible sessions…