Mediation in South Korea

Abstract

In Korea, there is a common notion that mediation is conducted mostly by the court, and many civil disputes are in fact handled by court-annexed mediations. Court-annexed mediations are commenced either by the parties’ application or when the court hearing a litigation case decides to refer it to mediation. Mediation cases are handled by a designated mediation judge in each court, but the judge may appoint a standing mediation member or a three-member mediation committee to mediate the case instead. When a court hearing a litigation case decides to refer the case to mediation, it may also determine to conduct mediation by itself instead of sending the case to a designated mediation judge. A successfully concluded mediation will be recorded as a “record of voluntary mediation”, and such record is granted the same effect as a final and conclusive judgment. Meanwhile, private mediations that are conducted outside the court as well as international mediations are prevalent in Korea as yet, but interest in those fields is recently growing among legal practitioners.