The Practice of Mediating Environmental Disputes by the Environment Court in New Zealand

摘要

There is growing recognition of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) methods to resolve environmental conflicts compared to adversarial procedures. The Environment Court in New Zealand (formerly the Planning Tribunal) was given additional powers under the Resource Management Act 1991 to conduct mediation to settle disputes to complement its established role in dispute resolution using formal hearing procedures. This article provides an overview of the processes for conducting mediation under the Resource Management Act 1991 and examines the extent to which Court assisted environmental mediation is undertaken in New Zealand. The effectiveness of processes is evaluated from the perspective of the principal groups of stakeholders, judges, environmental commissioners and participants in Court assisted mediation. The evaluation was based on a range of procedural fairness criteria derived from a literature review. Data were collected from documentary sources and personal in-depth interviews with Environment Court Judges, Commissioners and participants in selected recent mediation cases.