Mediation Month 2025
The School of Law at UCLan Cyprus is delighted to once again host a series of events throughout February 2025 as part of UCLan Cyprus Mediation Month 2025. This annual initiative brings together academics, students, professionals, and the wider community to engage in various activities that highlight the impact of mediation in dispute resolution.
The International Civil and Commercial Mediation Professional Training Course under the UCLan Centre for Mediation was successfully offered for the seventh consecutive year between 7 and 15 February 2025 on campus. Participants, including postgraduate law students (LLMs) of the School of Law, who successfully complete this course, can register as Mediators with the Ministry of Justice and Public Order in The Republic of Cyprus, the Civil Mediation Council in the UK and become certified by the International Mediation Institute (IMI), subject to relevant registration requirements. For another year lead trainer was Dr Monalisa Odibo, leading the UCLan Centre for Mediation, who worked alongside Dr Nevi Agapiou, Dr Maria Tatsiou and Professor Stéphanie Laulhé Shaelou of the School of Law, UCLan Cyprus. This fully interactive course offers a life-changing experience, allowing participants to sharpen their critical and creative thinking skills by being actively engaged in the learning process. It offers participants a meaningful reality-based experience utilising applied learning. Realistic role-play scenarios help the participants to apply newly acquired knowledge and skills as well as to make informed decisions to a wide range of situations.
On 6 February 2025, there was also an opportunity for continuous professional development (CPD) for the certified mediators of the School of Law of UCLan Cyprus, namely Professor Stéphanie Laulhé Shaelou, Dr Nevi Agapiou and Dr Maria Tatsiou on mandatory mediation for small civil claims. The short CPD mediation refresher was delivered by Dr Monalisa Odibo, lead of the UCLan Mediation Centre in Preston. UCLan holds recognised Certified Mediator Training Programme Provider with the International Mediation Institute (IMI) as well as Registered Training Course Provider of the Civil Mediation Council (CMC) in the UK.
Later in the month Dr. Maria Tatsiou also had the opportunity to attend the INADR academic conference as well as act as a judge at the 23rd International Law School Mediation Tournament organised by INADR and hosted by the University of Georgia in Tbilisi, Georgia. The tournament had 22 participating teams representing law schools from countries across the globe. This mediation tournament has the unique features of letting students act as parties (advocate/client) and mediators in simulated role-plays. Moreover, the tournament gives the chance to students to co-mediate with a student from another university not only promoting active collaboration within the competition but also bridging the gap between cultural differences and mediation practices.
In addition, on 7-8 March 2025, the Jean Monet Centre of Excellence on the Rule of Law and European Values (CRoLEV) at UCLan Cyprus, and the Interdisciplinary Centre for Law, Alternative and Innovative Methods (ICLAIM), delivered the last workshop on ‘Citizen Empowerment: Sustainable Rule of Law and European Values in Europe’. The workshop built on the first workshop from the series, which was delivered in December 2022 and addressed the utility of Social Mediation as an informal dispute resolution tool for the promotion of the Rule of Law, and the second workshop on Participatory Democracy, which took place in December 2023, with the support of the Council of Europe. The third and final workshop under CRoLEV brough together the lessons learnt in the previous editions, and focused on Deliberative Democracy, introducing Public Assemblies as a tool for the strengthening of the Rule of Law in Europe an beyond. The workshop was delivered by Dr. Nadia Kornioti, Dr. Katerina Antoniou, and Dr. Haris Shekeris.
