Mediation in the system of ways of alternative settlement of family disputes
Authors:   Tomsk State University (Tomsk, Russian Federation), Rabets Anna M. , Khvatova Maria A. ,   Bauman Moscow State University; Financial University under the Government
Published: March 2023

The main purpose of the study is to determine the place of family mediation in the system of alternative ways of regulating family disputes; to evaluate the law on mediation in the general system of legislation designed to assist citizens in resolving family conflicts; to develop proposals for further improvement of legislation on mediation. The relevance of the study, its conditionality by a large number of family disputes, difficulties of access to justice, especially when considering cases in the order of administrative proceedings, is substantiated. The special interest of specialists in the field of family law in the theoretical and practical problems of mediation is emphasized. The definition of a family dispute is given as a kind of social conflict of a property or personal non-property nature arising between members of one family or between a family member and another person, if during such a conflict the rights and interests of the family or its individual members are affected. We are talking about disputes arising from legal relations that develop in the sphere of family life, the performance of its social functions. They have different subject composition, respectively, and disputes may arise between spouses, parents and children, other relatives and relatives who are in natural-biological and social ties recognized by law as legal. The definition of the concept of alternative settlement is given, understood by the authors as any settlement of disagreements and resolution of a conflict without a final resolution of the dispute on the merits by the competent authorities with the issuance of a law enforcement act subject to mandatory, including compulsory, execution. During the analysis of existing methods of alternative regulation of family disputes, in particular, used in the activities of notaries, lawyers, bailiffs, guardianship and guardianship authorities and even courts, the authors come to the conclusion that the mediation approach of public authorities cannot completely replace the mediation procedure, since these bodies have to solve the issue on the merits and when the absence of an agreement between the parties. At the same time, as a rule, one of the disputing parties wins, the other loses. This does not happen when using the mediation procedure, since during negotiations with the participation of an intermediary (mediator), the decision is made by the parties themselves or the dispute remains unresolved. In any case, the result of mediation is fixed in the mediation agreement. The author analyzes the range of circumstances that, according to the authors, can be the subject of a mediation discussion and form the basis for resolving the issue on the merits. Attention is paid to the analysis of the principles of mediation in relation to the problems of family mediation. The authors come to the conclusion that it is desirable to conduct family mediation on the principle of free, especially in disputes about children. At the end of the article is a list of the sources used. When writing the work, 18 sources were used, including scientific literature for the last 5 years. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.