Mediation in Civil and Mercantile Affairs (Brief Notes on Law 5/2012, of 6th July)

Abstract

The promulgation of state regulations on mediation in civil and mercantile affairs has been an important milestone in Spanish legislation, regulating in the ambit of the state, for the first time, some general aspects of this means of dispute settlement by the parties involved, and connecting it to the courts, introducing modifications into the rules of the ordinary civil legal system. Up to now, regulation has been embodied in the regulations promulgated by autonomous communities, with some mention in civil and procedural legislation, but with no state legal regime. The new legislation, motivated by the European mandate to transpose Directive 52/2008/CE, establishes a concept of mediation and the principles informing it; it sets the target scope of the regulation, not just trans-border, as required by the Directive, but also internal, introducing the person of the mediator by sta-tute, as well as a basic procedure. An important innovation is that the latter indicates the executive nature of agreements resulting from the procedure when converted into a notarised public deed.