Earticle

Community Mediation은 미국에서 실험적으로 시작되어 미국뿐만 아니라 영국, 오스트레일리아, 캐나다 등의 선진국을 비롯하여 아시아에서도 싱가포르, 말레이시아, 네팔 등에서 도입되어 운영되고 있다. 이제는 Community Mediation이 지역사회 분쟁해결의 새로운 추세의 한 흐름이 되고 있다. 본 연구는 외국에서 Community Mediation 제도가 속속 도입되는 추세에 주의를 기울이고, 외국의 이러한 움직임에도 불구하고 우리나라에서 이에 대한 연구가 거의 없는 상황에 주목하였다. Community Mediation은 단순히 분쟁해결 건수나 성공률에 의미를 부여하는 것에 그치지 않고, 지역사회 주민 간의 커뮤니케이션 증가나 긴장 또는 갈등의 완화, 지역정부와 주민 간의 관계 증진 등의 부수적인 효과를 중시해야 한다. 우리나라는 2010년 기준으로 OECD 회원국 중 종교적 갈등이 심한 터키에 이어 두 번째로 갈등 정도가 심한 것으로 나타났다. 지역주민들의 분쟁인 층간소음, 학교폭력, 주차 시비, 토지 경계, 지역개발로 인한 갈등 등 그 수많은 분쟁의 종류에 대응해서 일일이 개별적인 분쟁해결기구를 둔다는 것은 너무 큰 자원낭비라 할 수 있고 분쟁해결의 효율성 측면에서도 문제가 있는 방식이라 할 수 있다. 이제는 우리도 지역사회 분쟁을 해결하기 위한 종합적인 대안으로서 Community Mediation을 위한 주민분쟁해결센터의 도입을 추진하여야 할 것이다.

Introduced experimentally in the United States, Community Mediation is being operated in Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal etc in Asia as well as in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada which are the developed countries. Community Mediation is becoming a new trend of community dispute resolution. Nevertheless, there is seldom the study on Community Mediation as a single subject matter in our country. Paying attention to the tendency that Community Mediation systems are introduced one after another in foreign countries, this study takes note of the situation which relevant researches on Community Mediation are scarce in our country. Community Mediation is not limited to simply giving meaning to the dispute resolution caseloads or its success rate. We need to attach importance to ancillary effects which are communication enhancement among residents, mitigation of tension or conflict, relation reinforcement between the residents and the regional governments, and the like. Based on the criteria of the year 2010, Korea was disclosed that the degree of conflict was in the second severe among the OECD countries, following Turkey. It is not only a great waste of resources but also problematic approaches in terms of efficiency of dispute resolution that we establish individual dispute resolution machineries, matching so many kinds of regional disputes that are inter-layer noise, quarrels over the parking lot, boundaries of the land, school violence, regional development conflict etc. Now, we should push ahead with introduction of the community dispute resolution center for Community Mediation as a comprehensive alternative to solve the community disputes.

The growing importance of biological resources as sovereign rights to healthcare, energy, and food has sparked international discussions on Genetic Resources (GRs) and Traditional Knowledge (TK). As the bio-industry continues to grow, research and development utilizing patented biological resources are advocated. Currently, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is actively discussing GRs and TK, and an effective response to national interest has been sought. Of late, there have been growing disputes over issues like ownership, control, and access and benefit-sharing between indigenous peoples and users of GRs and TK resources. Resolution of disputes concerning GRs and TK are thus becoming critical not only to stakeholders such as the indigenous peoples and corporations, but also to third-party users. Due to the weakness of the current IP and court system however, such disputes are not addressed adequately. This paper will address the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which is an out-of-court dispute resolution system, on conflicting issues regarding GRs and TK. It will consider the WIPO as a forum for ADR and ADR for GRs and TK disputes and it will seek both parties in the dispute to benefit from the use of the ADR process.