Hernandez Crespo Drafts International Mediation Regulations

Professor Mariana Hernández Crespo was invited by the International Bar Association to serve as part of a distinguished team of global experts to draft regulations for governments considering alternatives to the arbitration process.

One of the most important developments in the field of investor-state dispute resolution, the regulations provide an indispensable framework for governments considering alternatives to the arbitration process. The rules are an attempt to set out the role of the mediator (or co-mediators), how the mediation is to be conducted, the privacy and confidentiality terms, and the method for the effective settlement or termination of the mediation proceeding.

Hernández Crespo has been one of the advocates of co-mediation in the context of investor-state settlement. In her work in progress, she argues that co-mediation can allow each party to have a mediator that shares similar backgrounds and cultures. In that way, co-mediators could effectively help in breaching gaps of cross-cultural differences between the foreign investors and host countries. The formal inclusion of co-mediation in the IBA rules could open possibilities worldwide that would otherwise not be known or considered. In her opinion, this framework represents a quantum leap in opening the spectrum of options at the international level.