期刊名称：International Journal for Court Administration
印刷版ISSN：2156-7964
电子版ISSN：2156-7964
出版年度：2012
卷号：4
期号：1
出版社：International Association for Court Administration
摘要：This Overview of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is intended to serve as a practical introduction to the various mechanisms for resolving disputes between parties. It is designed to inform deliberations among judges, justice ministry officials, and administrators who are considering the possibility of adding new dispute resolution options to the traditional adjudicative model operative in their government-based court systems. This Overview provides some guidance on how to design and implement an expanded ADR program in an existing court system. Leaders of all self-governing countries, regardless of their stage of development, seek to incorporate into their institutions of government a judicial function. They establish a framework of courts operated by the government and appoint individuals who meet the specified qualifications to serve as judges. The primary function of these judges is to resolve disputes in a civil manner based on the rule of law and subject to the authority delegated to them by the government. Because courts of law generally are perceived as the primary dispute resolution mechanisms in civil society, other forms of dispute resolution such as arbitration and mediation, two of the most popular, are known as alternative dispute resolution or ADR processes. In the past 30 years, the use of alternative dispute resolution in the court environment has evolved from what began as scattered experimental programs to become an essential component of many court systems throughout the world. Increasingly, court systems in countries at various stages of economic and political development are recognizing the functional efficiency of ADR as an alternative to the formal court adjudication process, and they are incorporating ADR programs to supplement the traditional dispute-resolution services they offer to their clientele. Virtually all leading court systems have integrated some form of ADR into their dispute resolution processes as a means of expediting case processing. Where disputes that are brought to courts can be resolved by less-costly and more efficient processes, courts may either require or urge the litigants to pursue ADR. The results in virtually all of these court systems have been positive for reasons explored in this Overview.
