Provides a contemporary account of current practice and research developments concerning family mediation across a range of issues in the UK and Ireland.

The modern emergence of mediation in the West in the 1980s represents a profound transformation of civil disputing practice, particularly in the field of family justice. In the field of family disputes mediation has emerged to fill a gap which none of the existing services, lawyers and courts on the one hand, or welfare, advisory or therapeutic interventions on the other, could in their nature have filled. In the UK mediation is now the approved pathway in the current landscape of family dispute resolution processes, officially endorsed and publicly funded by government to provide separating and divorcing families with the opportunity to resolve their disputes co-operatively with less acrimony, delay and cost than the traditional competitive litigation and court process. The consolidation of the professional practice of family mediation reflects its progress and creativity in respect both of the expanding focus on professional quality assurance as well as on developments of policy, practice guidelines and training to address central concerns about the role of children in mediation, screening for domestic abuse, sexual orientation and gender identity as well as cross-cultural issues including the role of interpreters in the process. Other areas of innovation include the application of family mediation to a growing range of family conflict situations involving, for example, international family disputes (including cross border, relocation and child abduction issues). Written by leaders in family mediation, this title provides a contemporary account of current practice developments and research concerning family mediation across a range of issues in the UK and Ireland. This title is included in Bloomsbury Professional's Family Law and Mediation online services.

"Scholarly as well as readable, it is a book which will no doubt be regarded as essential reading for lawyers as well as meditators, who should lose no time in acquiring it." - Elizabeth Robson Taylor MA of Richmond Green Chambers and Phillip Taylor MBE, Head of Chambers, Reviews Editor, “The Barrister”, and Mediator

"Irish contributors Conneely and O’Shea to Family Mediation: Contemporary Issues, in an excellent analysis, provide the Irish perspective and examine the development of family mediation in Ireland." - The Parchment

"...this substantial and interesting collection of essays aims to provide a critical overview of current developments and research in family mediation in the UK and Ireland, to improve professional practice and enhance understanding of family mediation by expanding knowledge, and to engage 'scholars' and practitioners in actively exchanging ideas and collaborating. Overall it succeeds." - Family Law

"This impressive book is a must read for all dispute resolution practitioners particularly family mediators and all of those individuals and professionals who are stakeholders in the family justice system. The book is both an academic and theoretical tour de force" - Dominic Raeside, Family Law in Partnership