Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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From February at Turtle Bay in Manhattan, the site of the United Nations, to July in Vienna, Austria, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law has been considering a tectonic shift in the treatment of mediated and conciliated settlements for international or crossborder commercial disputes.

This year, UNCITRAL’s Working Group II (Arbitration and Conciliation) held a winter session at the United Nations in New York, which was set to be followed by this summer’s Vienna meeting, of the full commission, to consider how it could move forward on a proposal for a convention on the enforceability of settlement agreements resulting from international commercial conciliation and mediation.

The goal, proposed by the United States, is a treaty similar to the New York Convention that propelled the advancement of international arbitration. The U.S. explained that 

"solving this problem by way of a convention would provide a clear, uniform framework for facilitating enforcement in different jurisdictions. Additionally, the process of developing a convention would itself help to encourage the use of conciliation by reinforcing its status as a method of dispute resolution coequal to arbitration and litigation."