• About us
  • GSDRC Publications
  • Research Helpdesk
  • E-Bulletin
  • Privacy policy

GSDRC

Governance, social development, conflict and humanitarian knowledge services

  • Governance
    • Democracy & elections
    • Public sector management
    • Security & justice
    • Service delivery
    • State-society relations
  • Social Development
    • Gender
    • Inequalities & exclusion
    • Social protection
    • Poverty & wellbeing
  • Humanitarian Issues
    • Humanitarian financing
    • Humanitarian response
    • Recovery & reconstruction
    • Refugees/IDPs
    • Risk & resilience
  • Conflict
    • Conflict analysis
    • Conflict prevention
    • Conflict response
    • Conflict sensitivity
    • Impacts of conflict
    • Peacebuilding
  • Development Pressures
    • Climate change
    • Food security
    • Fragility
    • Migration & diaspora
    • Population growth
    • Urbanisation
  • Approaches
    • Complexity & systems thinking
    • Institutions & social norms
    • PEA / Thinking & working politically
    • Results-based approaches
    • Theories of change
  • Aid Instruments
    • Budget support & SWAps
    • Capacity building
    • Civil society partnerships
    • Multilateral aid
    • Private sector partnerships
    • Technical assistance
  • M&E
    • Indicators
    • Learning
    • M&E approaches
Home»GSDRC Publications»Alternative dispute resolution for businesses in developing countries

Alternative dispute resolution for businesses in developing countries

Helpdesk Report
  • Brian Lucas
October 2014

Question

Identify mechanisms (particularly innovative ones) for helping businesses to effectively resolve commercial disputes in developing countries.

Summary

Dispute resolution mechanisms can be arranged in a continuum. At one end are processes like which are formal, inflexible, and adversarial, and which depend on neutral third parties to decide the outcome of the process, such as litigation in court, where the outcome is decided by a judge. At the other end are increasingly informal, flexible, and consensual processes such as mediation and negotiation. In these processes, the parties involved in the dispute have greater control over the proceedings and the neutral party, if there is one, supports the process but does not decide the outcome. The most commonly used Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes are arbitration and mediation.

The following trends and innovations are apparent in the literature reviewed for the report:

  • increasing interest in ADR generally, with governments in high- and low-income countries strengthening and encouraging ADR;
  • increasing interest in mediation, compared with arbitration which appears to be becoming more formalised and may be losing some of the features that distinguished it from litigation;
  • global convergence on the Model Law developed by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) to provide the basis for harmonised national legal frameworks for ADR, with many countries either directly implementing the Model Law or drawing on it;
  • increased interest in ADR mechanisms located wholly within the private sector, rather than being linked to the justice system;
  • increased recognition in some jurisdictions of traditional dispute resolution mechanisms and in opening up a broader range of ADR mechanisms; and
  • online dispute resolution opening up as a new area of activity, which is still in its infancy but which is likely to grow with the continued growth of online commerce.
file type icon See Full Report [PDF]

Enquirer:

  • Australian Government

Related Content

War Economy in North East Nigeria
Helpdesk Report
2020
Impacts of Covid-19 on Inclusive Economic Growth in Middle-income Countries
Helpdesk Report
2020
Inclusive and Sustained Growth in Iraq
Helpdesk Report
2018
The Impact of Entrepreneurship Training Programmes
Helpdesk Report
2018
birminghamids hcri

gro.crdsg@seiriuqne Feedback Disclaimer

Outputs supported by FCDO are © Crown Copyright 2023; outputs supported by the Australian Government are © Australian Government 2023; and outputs supported by the European Commission are © European Union 2023
Connect with us: facebooktwitter

Outputs supported by DFID are © DFID Crown Copyright 2023; outputs supported by the Australian Government are © Australian Government 2023; and outputs supported by the European Commission are © European Union 2023