Mediation

Mediation is fast, discreet and inexpensive. It leaves the parties in control of the result: they can devise solutions a judge could not impose, such as an exchange of works, a sharing of the price, a joint exhibition or a corrective to a catalogue.

It is particularly suited to disputes where the parties wish to continue their relationship, to emotionally charged cases — inheritances, restitutions — and to those where legal uncertainty makes the outcome of a trial a gamble.

Nothing said in mediation may afterwards be used before the arbitral tribunal or before a judge, unless agreed. Each party remains free to stop the process at any time. The mediator has no power of decision.

The agreement reached may be recorded in a consent award made by an arbitrator, which gives it enforceable force internationally.

A mediation-arbitration clause provides first for mediation, then for arbitration if it fails. The TAO offers a variant in which the mediator may not afterwards sit as arbitrator, in order to preserve the parties' freedom of speech.

Mediation may also be decided during arbitration, with suspension of the proceedings if the parties so request. Time limits are then extended accordingly.

Mediation agreements reached at the TAO frequently contain creative clauses: joint exhibition of the work, long-term loan to a museum, sharing of any capital gain, publication of an erratum, founding of a prize. These solutions meet the parties' real interest more surely than a judgment.

They must, however, be drafted precisely. The mediator and the Registry help to formulate the undertakings and, if the parties wish, to record them in a consent award.