Mediation within Arbitration - like turkeys voting for Christmas?

The push to integrate mediation more fully into arbitration is often presented as an obvious step towards efficiency and better outcomes. Yet in practice, tribunals rarely order or actively promote mediation. Why? This panel explores whether structural, cultural and economic factors within the arbitral system influence whether, when and how mediation is encouraged.

The discussion will examine whether the incentives built into the arbitral system make early settlement culturally or economically unattractive, and whether arbitration is sometimes preferred as a strategic step rather than a genuine route to resolution. Panellists will consider the ethical, practical and institutional factors that shape tribunals’ attitudes to mediation, as well as whether meaningful integration of consensual processes is realistically achievable without changes to incentives, rules or expectations.

The session invites a candid debate about whether mediation and arbitration can truly coexist as partners in dispute resolution — or whether asking arbitration to embrace mediation is, indeed, like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas.