Newsletter No. 355

No. 355, 4.4.2010 NEWS & EVENTS (接上頁 Continued ) Professor Hilmer explained that it is a seven-step process (see diagram) and said, ‘Compared to the usual litigation process which is adversarial by nature, mediation is more flexible and informal. It empowers the participants to make their own decisions and retain control over an eventual settlement and its terms.’ In the process, a party often develops a better understanding of the other party and hence the current unhappy relationship between the parties may be improved. Professor Hilmer thought that the Chinese are no strangers to mediation, as their business or negotiation practice is heavily dipped in mutual trust. She mused, ‘The Chinese’s emphasis on trust in any kind of relationship, particularly in business ones, echoes the consensus-building nature of the mediation process. It’s as if without making it a term of art and prescribing an explicit set of steps to be followed, the Chinese have been relying on this method of dispute resolution for a long time.’ The institute has incorporated mediation in its LLB, LLM, JD and PCLL curricula. Professor Hilmer uses role-plays and videotapes to sensitize students to the latent values Sarah E. Hilmer, ‘Discussion of the different stages of a mediation process’, Journal of International Dispute Resolution 2/2006, pp. 63–68 前美國國務卿談亞洲發展 Former US Secretary of State on Asia’s Future • 前 美國國務卿及史丹福大學胡佛研究所Thomas and Barbara Stephenson公共政策資深研究員 康多莉扎 ‧ 賴斯教授於3月19日應邀蒞校主講「未來的亞 洲」。當天演講廳高朋滿座，逾千名中大教職員和學生、政 府官員、商界領袖、公眾人士和傳媒出席。演講也直播到 本地學校和內地的大學。 賴斯教授於講座中對亞洲未來表示樂觀，但指出緊隨繁榮 而來的乃是確保區內安全的責任。她也旁及亞洲各國發展 的廣泛課題，並透闢分析這些國家面對的困難與機遇。 在講座的答問環節，舉凡她在任期間的美國外交政策以至 美國教育的提問，賴斯教授都以一貫的睿智，直抒己見，口 齒便給又博古通今，以頂尖學者的修養、練達政治家的丰 采，贏得全場觀眾激賞。 賴斯教授於1981年加入史丹福大學，任政治學教授，並於 1993至99年出任該校首席副校長一職。2001年起賴斯教 授擔任總統國家安全事務助理（國家安全顧問），其後出 任美國歷史上第二位女國務卿（2005至09年）。 P rof. Condoleezza Rice, former US Secretary of State and Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at Hoover Institute, Stanford University, visited the CUHK campus on 19 March to give a lecture on ‘The Future of Asia’. Over a thousand CUHK staff and students, government officials, business leaders and members of the public and the press packed the lecture halls. The lecture was also broadcast to local schools and universities in mainland China. At the lecture, Professor Rice expressed her optimism for Asia’s future but pointed out that ensuring regional safety was a responsibility that came with prosperity. She touched upon a comprehensive range of issues that concerned the development of Asian countries and presented her trenchant analysis of the problems and opportunities they faced. In the Q&A part of the lecture, Professor Rice in characteristic perspicacity gave her honest answers to questions that ranged from her retrospective view of US foreign policy when she was Secretary of State, to American education, captivating the floor with the eloquence and erudition of a top scholar and seasoned statesman. Professor Rice joined the Stanford University faculty as a professor of political science in 1981 and served as Stanford University’s provost from 1993 to 1999. Professor Rice served as assistant to the president for national security affairs (national security adviser) in 2001 and became the second female holder of Secretary of State of the United States from 2005 to 2009. and potential conflicts of parties from different cultural backgrounds. She found her students showing a keen interest in this alternative way of ‘lawyering’. Students found the experience valuable as they are made more aware of the deep-lying values and motives of parties in different positions and they are trained to focus not only on the legal rights and facts but also on the interests and emotional and psychological needs of the parties. With the judiciary’s promulgation of a new practice direction, lawyers in Hong Kong are now under a duty to advise their clients who are contemplating legal actions to consider resolving their disputes by mediation. Professor Hilmer expected to see a wider use of mediation in Hong Kong and thought that the institute has much to contribute to this development by way of training CUHK law students as well as practising lawyers in mediation. She concluded, ‘Mediation is about building bridges of communication. Instead of the win-lose situation of traditional litigation, it often yields a win-win result.’