Newsletter, March 2007

Contents this month

• Main article: How engaging is climate change?
• The Office of the Public Mediator
• Evaluating engagement processes
• Project news
• IVCA Essential Communications Conference

The Office of the Public Mediator

The Brent Spar, the giant oil storage buoy that in 1996 was at the centre of a row between its owners Royal Dutch Shell and Greenpeace, led to a dialogue process that is now seen as the coming of age of stakeholder dialogue.

In the current issue of the journal of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators Andrew Acland, who was involved in the Brent Spar dialogue process, discusses the resolution of disputes in its various settings: legal, commercial and public. He looks at how these relate to conventional public consultation processes and argues for a more official role for mediators in the UK.

We are reproducing this compelling article in full as a PDF file that you can download here and would welcome your comments.