On the same day I posted about the delay in the legislative process implementing the EU Directive on Certain Aspects of Mediation in Civil and Commercial Matters, the German parliament (Deutscher Bundestag) issued a press release that an agreement had been reached across all party lines, and that formal requests for amendment had been withdrawn.
At the time of writing, no information over and above the press release appears to have been published. From the press release, it seems that parliament has more or less settled upon passing into law the draft Mediation Act that was proposed by the government in April 2011. The press release still links to the April version of the draft. So at first sight, it appears that the heated debate about court-integrated mediation was much ado about nothing. Neither it, nor the expert hearing in May 2011 appear to have had a significant impact on the legislation as finally implemented.
[…] judges as mediators. Then the Lower Chamber of German Parliament (Bundestag) unanimously passed the Act and in doing so kicked out the concept of court-integrated mediation, and introduced a novel idea, […]