Inernational Litigation and Mediation-Cross Cultural Aspects

Dear friends,

Today we will carry on looking at Best Practice Number One and its application to international litigation and mediation. As I said in the earlier blog entry on this topic, each nation's culture is supported by its legal system. Following on this idea, each nation's culture is fundamentally supported by its core values as I have discusssed on this and other blogs before. It is the differing values held by a culture and those who live within that culture and thus by a nation that can create difficulties in understanding another nation and the people of the other nation's culture. Values are at the very core of every culture. The layers that are more visitble of that culture are the "practices", including the culture's rituals, heroes and symbols, which are the most visible. If the values of one national culture are almost 180 degrees different from those of another national culture, then the "practices" of the very differing cultures will also be 180 degrees different.

I suggest that in an early simplistic application of Best Practice Number One (THE ABA GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS, A Comparison of Cross-Cultural Issues and Successful Approaches, 3rd Edition, Chapter 8, Jane E. Smith, "Minimizing Risk: Best Practices in Managing Cross Cultural Concerns in Global Contracting", p. 159-187, May 2009, Section of International Law and Practice, American Bar Association.), each participant in an international legal dispute apply Best Practice Number One first to themselves to better understand their own culture and its values and then apply the Best Practice to each national culture participating in the international litigation dispute. With the cultural values understandings that can come from such application of Best Practice Number One, there is increasing opportunity that the dispute may settle in manner that is least costly financially to all parties, with great opportunity to settle the dispute with bridges of mutual understanding and respect built.

For more information on this topic, please feel free to contact me personally. I will continue with this topic on this blog, discussing the opportunities that the Best Practices Method offers for meaningful resolution of international litigation and meditation, in regard to the cross cultural concerns that exist.

Warm regards,

Jane

Jane E. Smith, Esq.
LiSimba Consutling Services, Inc.
Building Relationships for International Business Success
3305 Eagle Bluff Road
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55364
USA
www.lisimba.com
Telephone: 612-802-1240
Facsimile: 952-472-2681

A Continuing Understanding of the Cross Cultural Aspects of International Litigation and Arbitration

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