Beatrice Blohorn-Brenneur* & Dragos Calin**
*Former Judge at the Court of Appeal of Grenoble, France and President of GEMME - European Group of Magistrates for Mediation
**Judge, Court of Appeal of Bucharest, VIIth Civil Chamber, Bucharest, Romania and past Vice-President of GEMME - European Group of Magistrates for Mediation
seminar: Mediation as a Method of Pacifying Conflicts
Experienced Judges Beatrice Blohorn-Brenneur (Grenoble, France) and Dragos Calin (Bucharest, Romania), the current President and past Vice President GEMME - European Group of Magistrates for Mediation, organization Romania is a member of, will talk about mediation, its advantages and practice, and Beatrice Blohorn-Brenneur’s books on this subject that were translated in Romanian and are sold in all major bookstores around the country, Dragos Calin, being one of the translators.
Beatrice Blohorn-Brenneur is Mediator for the Counsel of Europe. She has institutionalized mediation at the Grenoble Court of Appeals, where she mediated hundreds of cases. She is the President of the International Conference of Mediation for Justice (CIMJ), the European Association of Judges for Mediation (GEMME), and the GEMME-France. Judge Brenneur has written extensively about mediation, and for many years provided mediation training to judges at the French National Judicial College.
Since 2009, Béatrice Blohorn-Brenneur has been a conventional and judicial mediator and mediation trainer. She has also been mediator at the Council of Europe since 2010.
She began her career as a lawyer while serving as assistant at the University of Aix-Marseille, before becoming a judge from 1975 to 2008.
She is considered the pioneer of the institutionalization of labor court mediation before the Court of Appeal. In her capacity as President of the Courts of Appeal of Grenoble, then Lyon, France, she developed a practice of mediation and "New judicial conciliation", in the fields of work, family, co-ownership, neighborhood and commercial matters.
In a relatively short span of time, between 1996 and 2003, at the Court of Appeal of Grenoble, Béatrice Blohorn-Brenneur ordered 1000 mediations with an agreement rate of 75 to 80%.
Based on this success, she left the profession of magistrate to become, since 2009, mediator and trainer in mediation. Since 2010 she has also been a mediator at the Council of Europe.
Beatrice Blohorn-Brenneur advocates the fundamental values of justice: listening, paying careful attention, fairness, respect and humanity. Her purpose is to pacify conflicts and to enable everyone to find appropriate solutions.
Marked by a great humanity, animated by the spirit of justice and her faith in the human being, Béatrice Blohorn-Brenneur tries to get people to overcome their conflicts so that, so that through mutual respect and by listening to the other, everyone can understand the other.
To succeed to impose mediation, one must change deep implanted habits, requiring chnaging mentalities. To achieve this, Béatrice Blohorn-Brenneur relied on associations of judges, lawyers and mediators she created. The movement started in France, but spread to Europe, and is now international. In 2003, she created the European Group of Magistrates for Mediation - GEMME - (Gemme.eu), then, in 2008, the association which brings together the members of the French section, GEMME-France and the International Conference of mediation for justice, CIMJ (cimj.com).
Beatrice Blohorn-Brenneur is the author of several books on conflict management and mediation including:
• Justice and mediation – Testimony of a labor judge, Publishing House Editions du Cherche Midi, 2006, (First prize at the International Literary Competition of Arts and Letters in France, Medal of the city of Colmar, France).
• Stress and suffering at work – testimony of a judge, Publishing House Ed Harmattan, 2010.
• From Disenchantment to Divorce - Judgment, Conciliation, Mediation, L'Harmattan, 2013.
• Mediation for all - Theory and practice of mediation - the legal framework of mediation, Publishing House Ed. Medias and Mediation, 2013 (translated into English, Romanian, Greek, Vietnamese and in the process of being translated in several other languages).
Béatrice Blohorn-Brenneur is also editor of collective works (see bibliography), created several films, and is the director of training sessions on communication techniques and mediation, in France and abroad.
The work of Béatrice Blohorn-Brenneur earned her the nomination as Officier de la Légion d’honneur / Officer of the Legion of Honor
Dragos Calin, Judge, Court of Appeal of Bucharest, VIIth Civil Chamber (since April 2009), trainer of the National Institute of the Judiciary of Bucharest for professional magistrates (since 2006), research associate scientist of the Institute of Legal Research of the Romanian Academy - The Center for Studies of European Law (since May 2010), PhD in Law (University of Bucharest), Director of the Journal The Judges' Forum (since 2009), founding member of CIMJ (International Conference of Mediation for Justice) October 2009, Vice-President of GEMME - European Group of Magistrates for Mediation (May 2010-May 2012), founding member and President of the Association The Forum of Judges of Romania (since 2007 ), member of the Association of European Magistrates for Human Rights (AMEDO) (since May 2011), member of the Franco-Romanian Association of Jurists (since 2009), member of the Association of Magistrates of the European Union (since 2007), author of numerous books and articles in the field of law, published in Romania, France, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Portugal, Czech Republic, Armenia and Argentina (more than 100), among which Quelle justice pour la France? 31 personnalités répondent aux préoccupations des Français / What justice for France? 31 personalities respond to the concerns of the French, Publishing House Editions L'Harmattan, Paris, 2012, and Les arrêts de la CEDH contre la Roumanie – Analyse, conséquences, autorités potentiellement responsables. Conclusions pour la période 1994-2010 / The judgments of the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) against Romania - Analysis, consequences, potentially responsible authorities. Conclusions for the period 1994-2010, Publishing House Editura Universitara, Bucharest, 2012.
Seminar Abstract:
Mediation as a Method of Pacifying Conflicts
Seminar
Beatrice Blohorn-Brenneur*
Former Judge at the Court of Appeal of Grenoble, France
and
Dragos Calin
Judge, Court of Appeal of Bucharest, VIIth Civil Chamber, Bucharest, Romania
The mediation, which is known since ancient times, exists today in a modern and institutionalized form. It allows people to resolve their own conflicts with the help of a communication professional. Mediation is a method of pacifying conflicts in which one understands the other's point of view and makes the other understand one’s own point of view, in order to reach an agreement that is agreeable to all parties. It avoids lawsuits and the war that takes place there.
Mediation came into being, almost at the same time, in most countries of the five continents. Some countries, like Argentina or Italy, for example, have even made it mandatory before referral to the courts. It is becoming increasingly important in European countries, to the point that a European Directive has forced the European Community member states to introduce it into their judicial system. Mediation will continue to develop in the coming years.
Judges, lawyers, other legal professionals, business leaders, human resources managers, unions, mediators and all those who are directly or indirectly involved in conflicts are interested in this peaceful way of resolving conflicts.