This year, 29-30 September 2021, the INTERNATIONAL MEDIATION SUMMIT 2021 is organized in China - Jiangdong New District : “Comparison of international commercial dispute resolution mechanisms at this stage”.

Fabienne van der Vleugel, vice-presidente of the 77 committee of the French foreign trade advisor and professor at the University Gustave Eiffel, has been invited to participate on-line, to this session, in order to develop an interesting theme : “Is mediation really a voluntary process”?

May we still talk about a “voluntary process” when mediated parties are invited by a judge to mediate (judicial mediation), are obliged to mediate by contract (ad-hoc mediation) or are legally bound to mediate before initiating a judicial procedure (in France, currently, for conflict that are limited to a certain amount).

Those questions are interesting to be analyzed and compared with practices existing in other countries, in order to understand how mediation is developing and how it may adequate to formalize it – or not – and to impose it – or not.