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"MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION IN THE MIDDLE AGES: ENGLAND 1154 TO 1558"
Med-Arb by Any Other Name Is Still Effective Dispute Resolution
We call it mediation-arbitration. Shakespeare called it loveday. The point is: mediation and arbitration were as popular in England during the Middle Ages as they are throughout the world today.
In Derek Roebuck's latest scholarly research into the origins of dispute resolution, he picks up where his 2008 book, Early English Arbitration, leftoff. Early English Arbitration focused on the history of dispute resolution from the earliest times to about A.D. 1154. This book covers the start of Henry II's reign to the beginning of Elizabeth I's rule in 1558.
Reconciliation and Lovedays
Loveday was a day of reconciliation, a part of life in England from Anglo-Saxon times. Religious festivals offered regular opportunities to conduct lovedays. But Shakespeare helped popularize the term when he used it in The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus, written around 1591.
"The parties could arrange a loveday for themselves or it might be the result of the efforts of friends to mediate," writes Roebuck. "The first step was always to try to mediate. Only if that failed must a decision be made. Even after judgment, it was better to come to...