Disputes are more often than not inevitable in one’s everyday life. While some disputes mandatorily result in Court proceedings, others may be resolved through effective alternative systems.

Arbitration is one of such alternative systems, with the main difference to Court proceedings being the informality in which proceedings take place. As in Court proceedings, the end result is a decision. Such a decision is taken by a person who is unrelated to both parties, who is independent, who has a state function and who has got the enforcement mechanism of the state behind him so that a decision he takes solves the dispute through a binding judgement. The system of arbitration which we have in Malta is an institutional one and is therefore governed by a central set of rules which are implemented by the Malta Arbitration Centre.

Mediation, on the other hand, seeks a solution rather than a decision. In mediation proceedings, the parties to the dispute agree on a solution which they are both happy with. Both parties would therefore have worked a system that they can both live with. A mediation award is however not enforceable.

Another alternative system is Conciliation, wherein the parties decide that they will continue to do their best in good faith and move on from the dispute at hand. This does not mean that someone has been declared right or wrong and it also does not mean that one comes out with a binding solution. This is definitely considered as the softest method of dispute resolution.